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Chapter Text

Valerie was fuming as she stared up at the ceiling of her moldy bedroom, her body shaking from just how agitated and angry she was. It was one thing for a ghost to get her father unemployed and to ruin her social standing in school—she could handle all of that and it, admittedly, wasn’t the end of the world.

But for a ghost to trick her, use her? She felt sick just thinking about her willingness to simply go with everything Vlad’s been telling her to do. She’s been so grateful for his assistance with ghost hunting, she never really questioned his intentions. She never thought he might be manipulating her. Heck, he was their mayor—she should have known he would be rotten to the core, considering he was a politician.

Still, the leap from being a horrible person to being a horrible half-ghost was something she never would have thought to make had she not seen it herself. She was still reeling from that moment of clarity, when she finally saw Vlad for what he truly was—a monster wearing the skin of a respectable human being.

A part of her wanted to believe he was simply overshadowed by Plasmius, that it wasn’t true—but she still remembered Danielle Phantom turning into a ghost from her human form. It was freaky, unnatural, but very much real. Valerie knew the girl’s human side was authentic and not an act. Heck, even Phantom knew it, appealing to her humanity in order to get her to let him go and save his, um, friend.

Yeah, that part was still weird, but she was too busy being angry to pay it much attention—at the moment, anyway.

So if Dani could be half-human, so could other ghosts—such as Plasmius. That scumbag that Valerie wanted to shoot with all her weapons. That ghost’s been using her for his advantage all along. How many times has Vlad asked her to go hunt certain ghosts for him? How many times has she delivered? How many times has he tried to… melt them in his evil lab?

How many of them were secretly part human?

She wanted to cry. Has she been seriously hunting down humans, too? All this time? Were there other half-ghosts out there, walking among humans and floating next to ghosts? Has she hurt any of them? She didn’t want to think about it, but not thinking about it just wasn’t possible. She would hate herself if she found out there were ghosts out there who were her targets despite also being human.

But why wouldn’t half-ghosts tell humans they were also alive? Valerie would never have hunted them down had she known. She wasn’t a murderer! She went after ghosts—things that were already dead. They couldn’t feel, so it wasn’t as bad. But could half-ghosts feel? Dani sure looked like she could feel every excruciating moment of being melted down into goo.

And Valerie wasn’t even the one to be that worried about the girl—no, it was Phantom who convinced her to go help her. Phantom, while being strapped and threatened by her, pushed her to make the right decision—something that shouldn’t have been possible, considering how ghosts didn’t have morals. Humans did. And she was the human here, not—

Valerie sat upright in her bed, her eyes growing wide. Danielle Phantom and Danny Phantom were ridiculously similar. Even their names were remarkably the same, to the point where she got confused when Vlad had asked her to hunt Dani down, thinking he was talking about Danny.

Dani’s ghost form looked like a female version of Danny. Like someone took him, and decided to just copy paste his features onto a (younger) female body. Which was… a disturbing thought she wasn’t going to linger on for too long, because if her hunch was right about this, she felt like she might actually throw up her dinner.

The point was—if they were this similar to each other when Dani was a ghost, was it really a stretch to believe that maybe… somehow… Danny Phantom had a human half, too?

One day ago, Valerie would have laughed it off and moved on. How could a ghost possibly be human, after all? But now she knew it was an actual possibility—ghosts could also be human. And if there was a ghost such as Danny Phantom flying around the town at all hours of the day, acting and appearing much more human than any other ghost out there…

Her stomach lurched. She thought about the way he’d looked down at her with not-that-well-hidden fear, warily eyeing the gun she held in her hand. She remembered him warning her that she didn’t want to do this, didn’t want to torture him for the information she desired so much.

Back then she’d dismissed it as the ghost trying to stop her from attacking him by making her feel guilty—which didn’t work. She thought his pained scream was fake, because ghosts weren’t supposed to feel pain. The weapon was threatening his existence more than anything else.

Unless he really could feel it, the arcs of electricity pulsing through him from the gun. Unless he wasn’t warning her to make her feel bad, but rather because he knew she would feel horrible if she knew what she was doing to him if only she had another piece of information he has never before revealed to her—or anyone else as far as she was concerned, for that matter.

Unless he was just as human as Dani was.

“Oh, Gosh,” she murmured, her hand resting over her stomach as she held herself back from letting anything out. “He’s human. Danny Phantom is human.”

She wasn’t sure how that was possible, still. She couldn’t help but find it extremely strange that there were actual people who were part dead. Did that mean they’d died, but a part of them stayed alive? Did it mean they only had the powers of a ghost even though their life never ended?

But it didn’t matter, did it? The point was that she knew some ghosts were partially alive… and she worked for one, hunted another one down and nearly ended her life, and tortured the third one.

Her body’s trembles intensified and she felt energy coursing through her veins. She needed to get out of here. She needed to fly around, breathe some fresh air. Even though it was the middle of the night, Valerie just needed to let her mind rest for a few minutes—that’s all.

Activating her hoverboard, Valerie hopped out the window and flew toward the center of town, keeping her eyes peeled. She deactivated her ghost detector, not actually wanting to deal with any ghost attack at the moment—not when she wasn’t even sure about which ghosts she could attack and which ones she couldn’t—but in case she did see a ghost, she figured she shouldn’t be unprepared.

It helped, the chilly air of the night that enveloped her as she flew around, enjoying the peace and quiet of Amity Park. The stars weren’t fully visible because of the lights of the city and the pollution, but the sight of the few of them she could detect was enough to calm her nerves down even more.

Okay, so maybe a lot of things were different now, but she could shove it all to the back of her mind for a little while and just… exist.

Or, well, it only lasted until she noticed a glowing figure floating lazily above the town. His body was hovering unnaturally way above the roofs of the houses in a horizontal position, like he was lying in bed rather than midair. His hand was tracing the stars above slowly, as if finding the patterns of space; maybe he was mapping the constellations.

Even from a distance, Valerie could recognize Danny Phantom when she saw him.

It wasn’t a conscious decision—flying upward, to his level—but Valerie still found herself directing her hoverboard up, toward the figure that floated peacefully above the city, clearly enjoying the sight of the twinkling stars and the quiet of no ghost attacks—something that was becoming more and more rare as time went on.

At the sound of her glider, though, Phantom twisted in the air to look at her, and his green eyes widened in surprise and alarm as he straightened up and prepared himself to scatter.

“Come on!” he groaned, running a hand down his face. “When you said tomorrow you’ll go back to coming after me, I thought you meant I’d have the night to myself.”

She tried to speak, but wasn’t sure what to even say. And apparently her silence confused him because he didn’t fly out of there immediately, instead giving her a onceover, his expression switching from exasperation to confusion at the sight of Valerie not pulling any weapons out.

“Uh…” He looked around, as if to make sure there was nothing else out of the ordinary that might clue him in as to what was happening. “Are you okay, Red? You’re… acting kind of strange.”

Valerie took in a deep breath, then let it out. And she noticed—her heart squeezing painfully—that despite being a ghost, Phantom was breathing, too, even if the motion of his chest was shallower than a human’s. It made her knees wobble a little, but she tried to hide it.

“I wanted… to talk,” she said eventually, measuring her words as she spoke.

“Talk?” Phantom defensiveness eased a little. “About what?”

About everything, she wanted to reply. Instead, she said, “About Dani.”

In an instance, Danny’s shoulders hunched a little and he looked around once more, as if expecting the girl to appear out of thin air. Which… wasn’t all that wild an assumption, considering what she was. Though… Valerie wasn’t event sure what she was. What Danny was.

For a moment Valerie thought he would just brush her off and fly away anyway. It was obvious Dani was a sensitive topic for him. He looked like he was willing to fight for her—which Valerie already knew was true. But instead, his face relaxed once more as he looked at her, taking in Valerie’s uneasy stance and her anxious gaze behind the visor of her suit.

“It’s a complicated story,” he said.

“I have time.”

He seemed to think about it for a moment, then he pointed to a random rooftop. “Fine. But let’s sit down, okay?”

He didn’t wait for her before already moving down to sit on the roof, his legs swinging over the edge easily. The sight made Valerie’s insides squirm unpleasantly. She didn’t recognize the house he picked, but maybe it had some kind of significance to him? What if this is where he lived? Were his parents there? Were they aware of what their son was?

Gosh, she couldn’t imagine being a parent and discovering your son was part ghost. She would have freaked out—especially if it involved actual death happening. Because didn’t it mean she did a poor job of protecting her child if said child ended up turning into a… sort of ghost?

Trying to calm herself down once again, she landed next to Danny and let her suit melt away. She was sure he wouldn’t attack her now—he was part human, too. He wasn’t going to hurt her. He’s never done anything too serious to her, after all.

The only time he let loose on the Red Huntress was when she wasn’t even in the suit, and considering the fact that he knew who she was meant that maybe he just saw her actually watching the fight from the side and figured he could fight back.

It made her feel so much guilt, though. Because if that was the case, then Phantom’s been holding back with her from the beginning, not actually wanting to hurt a human being; and she’s been out to get him, figuring she couldn’t truly hurt him, and that even if she did, it wouldn’t matter. For her, her was nothing more than the ghost who’d ruined her life.

“So,” he said, looking slightly taken aback by her choice to retract her suit. “What d’you wanna know about Dani? I mean, I might not actually tell you everything, but…” He furrowed his eyebrows at her, his green eyes making her slightly uncomfortable because of just how expressive they were. “You look like something’s eating at you.”

Valerie bit her lip, then asked, “I just don’t get it—how is it possible that she’s both human and a ghost? It shouldn’t be possible! I know it is because I saw her, but it’s just… it defies everything we know about ghosts, doesn’t it?”

“Probably. Somewhat.” Phantom looked down at his white gloves. “I think it’s hard to understand because you believe that humans can’t mix with ectoplasm. And it’s only partially true. I guess too much ectoplasm would kill a person if they got exposed to it for a long enough period of time. But under certain conditions…”

“Like Dani.”

“Dani is… different,” he said slowly, mulling over his words carefully. “She’s a halfa—yes—but she’s not like the other ones.”

“A halfa?”

Phantom nodded. “It’s the term the ghosts use for people who are a combination of a human and a ghost. Most of them don’t really care if you’re a full ghost or a halfa, but some of them think it’s, I don’t know, different. Like halfas are somehow stronger or better or just plain weird. I don’t know, it’s a whole thing. I never really asked about it.”

“Why not?”

He gave her a flat look. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly on the best terms with most of the ghosts I tend to meet. They’re not all that jazzed when someone sucks them into a thermos and throws them back into the Ghost Zone.”

Valerie shook her head. “So Dani is a halfa,” she said, earning a hesitant nod from Phantom. “But you said there are others like her. I’m guessing you mean more than just Mr. Masters.”

“I—well—” He froze and his eyes grew wide. “Wait, you know about Vlad?”

She pursed her lips. “I went back in to help him because I remembered he was still inside that closet, but when I got in I saw him and Plasmius and heard them…” She shuddered and shook her head. “I can’t believe I’ve been doing his dirty work for him all this time! He’s been using me, and I was none the wiser!”

“Don’t take it too hard—he does that to everyone,” said Danny easily. “He did it to Dani, too. That’s why I thought she was actually tricking me to help you at first—because it wouldn’t be the first time she made me trust her and then stabbed me in the back.”

“But you seem to be really close to her,” noted Valerie cautiously.

The ghost boy shifted uncomfortably. “She’s like… a cousin to me,” he said, sounding rather uncertain about it. Then he gave her another look, assessing her quietly. “But that’s not the point—something was bothering you. What did you really want to talk about?”

Valerie shook her head. “No, this is it. I wanted to know more about Dani.”

He didn’t look like he believed her.

“Look, you said she was different than other, um, halfas. So tell me what makes her different, then. Why is she different than Plasmius? Does this have anything to do with how she was melting? Or does that happen to all halfas?”

“It doesn’t, only her.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I can’t really explain all of this to you. It’s… really complicated. And pretty personal, too. And sure, you might not think I deserve privacy if I’m a ghost, but—”

“But you’re not only a ghost, are you?”

He froze.

For a few seconds the night was silent and still. Valerie kept on watching Phantom as he seemed to flounder for something to say—probably to try and lie his way out of this. He was always pale, she knew, but right then he looked like he was paler than normal. His toxic-green eyes darted all around, which only made him look like a trapped animal.

Then his whole body sagged in defeat and he sent her watch a wary look, as if aware of just how lethal the suit tucked inside was. Yet he didn’t just try to bolt, meaning he probably realized she came here with this idea already in mind, and she wasn’t attacking him.

“Vlad kept on trying to convince me to renounce my father and let him take me in instead so he could teach me everything he’s been learning to do as a ghost, since he’s been this way for twenty years. Obviously, I refused because… what kind of offer is this? So he tried to… clone me.

“There were plenty of failed attempts I had to fight. He’d sent them after me so he could get a sample he needed to perfect them all. Danielle was one of those attempts, but she was more sentient than the rest of them. She wasn’t perfect or stable enough, but she was better. So he sent her after me, to trick me. I helped her get away from him in the end, but… she wasn’t created the same way Vlad and I were because of it.”

Yeah, Valerie felt like she was going to lose her dinner any moment now. Her head felt dizzy as she stared at Phantom with unseeing eyes. This ghost—this boy—has been cloned and tricked by someone who was like him, but clearly much more hostile. What kind of sick person decides to just up and clone someone?

Gulping, Valerie looked down at her shaking hands and tried to take in a deep breath and calm herself down. This was not the time to lose it. She needed to keep herself collected and take in the information. She needed to focus. She needed to hold herself together and digest this information for future use.

It didn’t help that Danny Phantom was staring at her worriedly, looking like he wasn’t sure how to help her.

And wasn’t this like a kick to the gut? For the first time Valerie saw the concern on Phantom’s face and accepted it as sincere rather than a ploy to try and get her guard down so he could pounce and attack. Because behind this glow and the unnatural colors and abilities, Valerie now knew there was an actual person, a human; living and breathing and feeling bad for her.

He wasn’t faking it. He never has.

“Do your parents know?” she asked weakly, her voice sounding strained even to her.

Phantom laughed hollowly. “Heck, no. For one, they don’t exactly, um, like ghosts too much—especially me. And as an added bonus, telling your parents that you essentially got yourself killed right under their noses is not exactly something that’s easy to do.” He curled his shoulders inwardly. “I know they won’t hurt me if they find out, but…”

She couldn’t imagine being afraid of her dad hating her for who she was. Sure, she’d tried to keep her identity as the Red Huntress from him, but it was because she knew he wouldn’t approve—not because she thought he’d hate her for it. He didn’t want his little girl getting hurt and risking her life while fighting ghosts, but he told her more than once that he was proud of her for her efforts, bravery and determination.

What would it feel like to be worried her father might actually hate her for her career as a ghost hunter, though? She couldn’t even imagine it. It was too farfetched. And even though Phantom just told her that he knew his parents wouldn’t hurt him if they found out, she could hear the genuine fear in his voice as he said it, like he was still just a little concerned things might go wrong.

“Right…” She tried not to sound like she was losing her mind, but she thought that Phantom’s growing concern was like proof that she was failing. “Why haven’t you told me? You told me about Dani to get me to help, but you were actually going to let me keep on hunting you down without telling me a thing? What if I actually killed you?”

The words sounded ridiculous when she was talking to a literal ghost, but she wasn’t sure what was and wasn’t possible when it came to halfas—not anymore.

Phantom grimaced. “Look, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but you hated me, okay? And I wasn’t sure you’d stop trying to shoot me if you knew the truth, so… I didn’t feel like exposing myself like that. At least now if you chase me, I can just turn human and you wouldn’t know where I’d gone. If you knew who I was, I’d have been looking over my shoulder all the time.”

“I wouldn’t have attacked a human!”

“I wasn’t sure,” he said with a shrug, unrelenting. “Val, when you hate—you hate hard. I wasn’t sure whether you’d be able to let it go if you knew the truth.” He hesitated for a moment, then added, “I’m sorry. I know you would’ve been upset if you hurt me and then discovered I was also—” He blinked, then hurriedly said, “If you knew I was also alive.”

His voice was tense, like he was still hiding something from her, but Valerie honestly wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Not right now, at least. She was already drowning in all of this new information—no need to learn even more right now. It would just make her head blow up or something.

With an unhappy sigh, she said, “It’s… fine. I guess I see where you’re coming from.” She elbowed him then—hard enough to make him yelp and rub his side. “But it was still not cool, Danny. Is there any other halfa I need to know about?”

“Nope. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just Dani, Vlad and I,” he said instantly with a shake of his head. His lips tugged up as his eyes glowed a little more than usual. “So about that truce you keep on declining—”

“Ugh, yes,” she snapped. “Truce.”

He grinned. “See? Was that so hard?”

“You still owe me an explanation—I want to know what really happened with that ghost dog.”

His grin turned sheepish. “I’ll tell you everything I can, I swear. But… not tonight. I don’t think I can handle diving into everything right now. It’s been a long day…” He eyed her a little from the corner of his eye, looking slightly thoughtful and apprehensive as he said, “To be honest, I expected you to ask me who I was.”

Valerie frowned and clasped her hands together to keep them as steady as possible. “I don’t think I can handle any more revelations right now, either. I have enough information to digest at the moment. Besides, I can already guess that we go to school together—you did recognize me from the get-go.”

He winced, but that was all the confirmation she needed. It made her want to shiver—knowing that a kid she went to school with was actually part ghost; that he was being hunted by ghosts and humans alike, without anyone else knowing about it. Well, unless he’d told someone the truth—just not his parents.

But she wasn’t going to delve into this right now. There was enough on her mind without her thoughts also trying to figure out who Danny Phantom was. One step at a time, okay? And the first step she wanted to deal with was Vlad.

“Right now I’m more worried about Mr. Masters,” she said grimly, and Phantom pursed his lips in dismay. “I saw some of your fights with Plasmius. And since I know how strong you are compared to other ghosts, I know that him being this strong is bad. Not to mention his influence as a human—being our mayor and all.”

“Yeah, he overshadowed the voters to get elected,” grumbled Danny.

She swallowed. “Right…” That was another problem for another day. “Ugh, if only we knew what he was planning. Because then we’d be able to plan ahead, right? I feel like he’s been leading me in a certain direction all this time, always encouraging my hatred toward you to keep me focused. Now… I’m not sure what he’s even planning.”

“Don’t look at me—I don’t know either,” said Phantom defensively. “He tends to catch me off guard half the time. It’s honestly pure dumb luck that I’m still alive with him constantly coming after me.”

“And he knows who you are, doesn’t he?”

He scrunched up his nose. “He found out before I found out about him. Granted, both happened the same day, but still. He’s conniving, and smart. And while I try to keep my powers in check and not do anything bad with them, Vlad doesn’t care about that. He’s been using them for years to gain wealth and power. He’s devious like that.”

Valerie grunted. “I wish we knew what was coming so we could be prepared…”

The moment the words left her lips, Phantom tensed. Valerie quirked an eyebrow at the sight of blue mist coming out of his mouth as he gasped and looked around warily, his body coiling like he was getting ready to spring into action and fight.

And then Valerie blinked at the pink mist that seemed to appear out of nowhere, crawling from all around before swirling in the air before them. It took it a moment before it faded away, leaving behind a familiar ghost that Valerie couldn’t remember the name of—some kind of genie, though.

“Oh, crud,” grumbled Phantom.

The ghost laughed, her black hair floating around her, not responding to gravity properly. Her jewelry jingled as she gestured wildly, as if she wanted to envelope them both in a hug—probably to try and suffocate them.

Valerie summoned her suit quickly and Phantom reached behind him only to groan in frustration and mutter something about not having his thermos with him. Valerie figured he must have left his house to let loose—just like her—without intending on actually encountering any loose ghosts.

“Oh, what a wonderful wish, child,” said the ghost, her voice rich but full of malice.

“Desiree, don’t—!” started Phantom.

“And so you have wished it,” continued the ghost, ignoring Phantom completely as her hands seemed to emit pink mist, “and so it shall be!”

Valerie levelled an ecto gun at Desiree, but before she could pull the trigger, the world dissolved around her and she found herself plunging into darkness before her legs finally landed back on solid ground again. She yelped and fell to her knees, the gun slipping from her grip and the suit retracting against her will.

Grunting and rubbing her head, Valerie opened her eyes and looked around. She was surprised to see that she wasn’t alone—nor was she only with Phantom. While the ghost boy was hovering right next to her, looking just as disoriented and confused as she felt, there were plenty more people in the room they were in.

Valerie didn’t know all of the people living in Amity Park, but she could still tell that everyone she knew was there, staring around in confusion. Her heart clenched when she realized that every single person that lived in Amity Park was now in the large room, probably trying to understand what was happening and how they got there.

She even managed to spot her dad standing not too far away, blinking the sleep away as he looked around in bafflement, clearly not entirely sure he wasn’t still dreaming. Not too far away from him, she spotted Dash and Kwan yawning and talking loudly about how they teleported from their rooms to this one, as if they were special and not unlike everyone else around them.

Several people pointed at Phantom when they noticed him—some sounding excited and others sounding less than thrilled about being woken up in a strange room with a ghost in it. Valerie could already hear people speculating about all of this being his fault—Jack Fenton’s voice resounding around the room loud and clear above them all.

Widening his eyes, Phantom glanced down at Valerie, then he offered her a slightly panicked and apologetic look before he vanished—probably turned invisible to draw less attention to himself. It was confirmed when she felt his hand on her shoulder, like a silent promise that he was still nearby and hasn’t abandoned her with no warning.

“What’s going on?” she asked. She kept her voice low so that nobody but Danny would hear her. “What did that ghost do?”

“She grants wishes,” whispered the familiar voice in her ear. She tried not to shiver visibly. “Desiree grows stronger with every wish she grants. But she twists them just enough to make you regret ever making a wish. Kind of like a real genie, come to think of it.”

“Wait, so… this is because of me?”

He sighed. “Trust me, whatever Desiree’s going to do with your wish, it can’t be worse than what she did with Sa—” He started coughing abruptly and then hurriedly said, “I mean, my friend’s wish was worse, I’m sure of it. This is just… really inconvenient. But the moment we’re out of here, we can find Desiree and stop her.”

Valerie looked around quickly, trying to ignore the confused and panicked people all around. “Where are we?”

The hand on her shoulder disappeared and for a moment she thought he just left her to go and find his family and friends in his human form. She wouldn’t know, since she still didn’t know who he was. But then his voice came back after a few seconds, his shoulder brushing against hers.

“It looks like… a movie theater?” he said uncertainly. “But, I mean, I’m not sure what that has to do with your wish.”

Giving the area another look, Valerie had to agree—it really did look like a movie theater. There were comfortable-looking seats all around, arranged in rows and rows that could probably host the entire living population of Amity Park easily. And they were all facing a large, dark screen.

What in the world was Desiree doing?

Her lips tugged up into a satisfied smirk when she noticed people huddling around Vlad Masters, asking him what was going on and how they were going to get out of this. The man looked like he had no answers to them all, like he would actually just rather ignore them and send them to annoy someone else. Instead, of course, he had to take it all with dignity because, well, he was the mayor.

Still, when she looked around and noticed that there really were no exists, Valerie frowned.

“Can you get out of here through the walls?” she asked Phantom.

“Hold on,” he said, then his touch disappeared again. She waited for him to return with an answer and was relieved when his leg knocked into hers lightly, though it did make her startle a little. “Sorry. No, I can’t phase through them. Desiree knew who she was dealing with—she wasn’t going to make it easy.”

“So what now?”

“Now you shall get your promised wish,” said Desiree, her ghostly body appearing at the front of the room, right in front of the giant screen.

She grinned at everyone and cackled when Maddie and Jack Fenton tried to get their weapons and shoot her only to realize they were weaponless. Just like Valerie was. She tried to activate her suit again, but it wasn’t responding to her in the least—probably because of Desiree, too.

“What’s going on here?” demanded Maddie. “Where have you taken us, ghost?”

“And where are all our weapons?” added Jack loudly.

Desiree spread her arms wide. “Do not fret, humans, for you will not be harmed during your stay here. My only desire is to grant the wish I’ve been given. All you need to do is sit down and enjoy the show.”

“And what if we refuse?” challenged Jack.

“Nothing,” said the ghost. “But, of course, none of you will be sent back to your homes and your lives until the wish is complete, and while I’m sure I made this place spacious and comfortable enough for you humans, I believe you’ll need food and bathrooms eventually—something that does not exist here.”

“Oh, shoot,” muttered Phantom.

“No food?” gasped Jack. “What about fudge?”

Valerie rolled her eyes—and she was pretty sure she could hear Phantom sighing at the man’s antics as well. She cringed at the thought of how annoying the Fentons were probably in the guy’s eyes. She wasn’t sure why he didn’t hate her after everything she’s done to him, but surely he didn’t like the Fentons, right?

“I’d suggest you finish this as quickly as possible,” said Desiree.

“What if we wish to get out of here?” asked someone Valerie couldn’t see, though she thought it sounded like Sam Manson.

The ghost scoffed. “I shan’t grant it. I do not make the same mistake twice, little girl.”

“Worth a shot,” Sam muttered.

Smirking, the ghost winked out of existence, leaving the people of Amity Park to freak out even more at the realization that they were actually stuck. Valerie thought she could hear Paolina raving about how the ghost boy would come and save her as usual, but considering Valerie was standing next to said ghost boy, well aware of the fact that he couldn’t get out of this place either, she was rather skeptical about the girl’s sure exclaims.

“Well, this might take some time, then,” said Phantom. “I’d better go find my family and friends before they worry about me. You should go to your dad, too.”

She didn’t feel like separating from the only person here that seemed to know what was actually happening, but Valerie figured he was right. Her dad was most likely looking for her in the theater, and Danny Phantom’s living friends and family were probably searching for him, too—especially if they didn’t know who he was when he wasn’t human.

She was still having a hard time coming to terms with this, honestly.

“Yeah, okay,” she muttered under her breath. “I, uh, didn’t mean to make a wish and help the ghost, you know,” she added quickly.

Phantom scoffed. “Please, you think I didn’t know that already? You hate all ghosts, Red—it’s not exactly a secret. Just… let’s hope this won’t completely blow up in our faces, yeah?”

The feeling of his leg disappeared before she got the chance to respond and she figured he must have left already. A flash of light from nearby made her halt for a moment before she bit her lip and decidedly made her way toward her dad without looking—she didn’t need to know who Phantom was.

She could probably put it together herself, but she didn’t want to yet. She wasn’t ready for it to become too real just yet.

Chapter Text

Finding her dad wasn’t difficult in the least. The moment he saw her, he wrapped his arms around her, so tight she felt like she was going to burst. But eventually he let go, blabbering about how relieved he was to see her safe and not in that dangerous suit of hers.

She didn’t have the heart to tell him that was exactly what she’s been wearing before arriving here.

Around them, people were reuniting with friends and families, too, all of them taking seats together while keeping an eye on their surroundings, as if expecting the ghost to reappear—or maybe for Phantom to show up and save them all from whatever was happening. Of course, nothing happened.

Valerie was glad to know that nobody knew it was her wish—well, other than Danny Phantom. She didn’t think she would have been able to stay as invisible as she did in this crowd if people knew she was behind this entire thing—whether she meant it or not. She could see Paolina rolling her eyes at her; and Sam briefly glared at her, like everything wrong in her life was her fault.

She did not need to deal with this right now.

Of course, with her luck she and her dad stumbled upon the Fentons, Mansons and Foleys anyway. The parents were all talking to each other—though it looked like Sam’s parents were reluctant to indulge in the conversation—and Sam, Tucker, Danny and Jazz were huddled together, whispering between themselves.

When they noticed Valerie staring, Sam did, in fact, glare at her again—right along with Tucker—but Danny just smiled and waved. Valerie was so glad someone here was welcoming her without looking like she’s done something wrong, she almost bounded over to hug him. Instead, she offered him a wave in return and took a seat next to her dad and Jazz.

It was a little strange, because for a moment it looked like Danny wanted to sit next to Valerie, but then Jazz, Tucker and Sam moved together and effortlessly made sure he was sitting between Sam and Jazz, keeping him a seat away from Valerie. It was probably all in her head, but it felt personal.

Maybe it was—Valerie did know that Sam was jealous of her. She was upset because Valerie dared go out with Danny when she was into him, too. And Tucker was probably siding with his friend, like he should. But why the heck was Jazz in on this, too? Jazz never gave Valerie the impression that she didn’t like her and Danny going out together.

Besides, Valerie was the one to end it all, right? So why couldn’t they just let her be Danny’s friend without meddling in like three guard dogs? It wasn’t like she was going to hurt him.

“I hope this won’t take long,” Valerie’s dad said anxiously. He rubbed his eyes tiredly and then leaned back in his red seat. “Though I am curious to know what kind of wish resulted in all of this. Kind of over the top, isn’t it?”

She didn’t say anything, hoping her dad won’t notice how guilty she felt.

It seemed like forever before all of the people were finally sitting down. Some of them were still excitedly bouncing up and down, looking at the screen eagerly while speculating about what it might show them. Some looked apprehensive and wary of the situation, like the Fentons.

Valerie herself was just anxious to see how in the world Desiree would grant her this wish. So far… it all felt a little like the ghost was pulling her leg more than anything. How was this supposed to tell her what Vlad Masters was plotting? How was this assisting her in being ready for what was to come?

But then, once everyone was sitting in their seats, the dark screen turned gray, static coming from it and filling the theater. People turned to it curiously when it finally did something. Valerie herself braced herself for the worst—just in case. After all, this was all the job of a ghost, so she couldn’t possibly expect anything good to come out of it.

A hush fell over the room when the gray flashed, and suddenly the screen filled with dark colors.

A scene in space appeared, where Plasmius was flying next to Saturn with a space helmet on his head, holding an ancient-looking scroll of some kind and looking very smug about it.

“What a glorious morning,” the ghost ranted to himself smugly. “Defeating Frostbite and pilfering the all-powerful infi-map!” He spread the scroll and looked at it victoriously as purple doors shot out of it, floating in space next to him. “If this keeps up, I should be ruling the galaxy by lunch.”

Valarie growled at the sight of Plasmius. She wasn’t sure what the heck was going on, but if she was right about this then… maybe… this was the future. She did wish to know what Vlad was planning, after all. And if this is something that would happen in the future, the wish would be fulfilled by showing this to her—and every other resident of Amity Park.

Next to Jazz, Danny gasped and then whispered something to Sam and Tucker, looking frantic. Valerie had no idea what these three were discussing, but they all looked slightly alarmed and grim at the sight of what was going on on the screen. Though Valerie doubted they knew who Frostbite was any better than she did.

Probably another ghost, she guessed. She’s never heard the name before, but she wouldn’t be surprised if this was some unknown ghost. After all, she was pretty sure there were plenty more ghosts that have never thought of transferring to the human realm. Maybe Phantom knew them—maybe he knew who Frostbite was.

The Specter Speeder arrived through a green, swirling portal, driven by Tucker, who was accompanied by Sam and Danny Phantom. Tucker shot the top of Plasmius’s helmet with one of the lasers of the vehicle while Phantom reached for a megaphone.

“Kitchen’s closed, Plasmius! Give us back the map!”

Mouths fell wide open as people turned to look at Sam and Tucker, both of whom gawped at the screen in alarm before they quickly snapped them shut and tried to look as small as possible, as if that would help them right now.

“Sammy-kins!” called Mrs. Manson with a gasp. “What do you think you’re doing in space!”

Sam grumbled under her breath—loud enough for Valerie to understand a few words that gave her the impression that the goth girl was not amused by her mother’s reaction. Nor was she impressed in the least.

“Tucker Foley, what do you think you’re doing in outer space, young man?” demanded Mrs. Foley.

“I’ve never been to space!” denied the boy in alarm, his eyes wide open. “This is, um, I mean…”

“Maybe it happens in the future,” Valerie noted, hoping it might take some of the heat away from the two. Then she grimaced. “I mean, I have no idea why you’re helping Phantom in space in the future, but…”

Sam’s parents started ranting about how irresponsible it was to leave Earth like that, and how Sam was definitely not allowed to leave the atmosphere—which they were obviously not aware of in the future. Personally, Valerie found herself just thanking her luck for not putting her in that vehicle, too. She did not need her dad to berate her all over again.

Danny, despite not even being in the scene, received a pair of suspicious glares from his parents, who clearly assumed he was behind his friends arriving at space with one of their inventions. Which was, perhaps, a very logical conclusion to come to.

But Valerie still remembered how only several hours earlier she herself was led into the Fentons’ lab by Danny Phantom, who was obviously familiar with their lab and what was inside. So really, if Phantom wanted to take the Specter Speeder for a ride, he could probably do so without even asking for permission or getting caught. Now, why he would pick Sam and Tucker to go with him—that was beyond her.

“And another thing,” said Jack Fenton to Danny, “if your friends are already going to fight ghosts in space, I expect you to join them, Danny-boy! You know our inventions—it’d be useful!”

Maddie shook her head tiredly and sighed. “Jack, we’re not supposed to encourage him,” she scolded.

“Er—right! Son, don’t go to space!”

Of course, Danny was more busy with staring at the scenery of space on the screen, clearly taken by it. Valerie swallowed a smile at that, remembering how much Danny loved space. He’d told her about it when they started getting close. His dream was to become an astronaut, and now they were watching a scene from space—of course he’d love it.

Tucker shot Plasmius again—this time in the chest. It made the ghost yelp and drift to the side from the hit. Phantom instantly put on a helmet of his own and pulled a lever to make a wall come up and separate him from the two teenagers in the front.

“Let’s rock!” called Phantom.

From the front of the vehicle, Sam’s voice said, “Three, two, one… punch it!”

The Speeder opened for Phantom and he flew out to face Plasmius, avoiding the ghost’s pink ecto-rays with no difficulty. Instead of hitting him, the shots disassembled small asteroids.

“I know you’re a lost guy, Vlad,” taunted Phantom, “but no map is going to help you find your way.” He stopped moving and instead shot his own green ecto-ray at Plasmius. “You need therapy for that.”

Plasmius formed a shield in front of him to deflect the blast, but it ricocheted off the shield and blew up a nearby asteroid that still impacted with him, making him roar with anger and pain.

“Woo-hoo!” cheered a few people—mainly kids Valerie knew from school. “Go Phantom—kick this ghost’s butt!”

She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help the small smile that spread across her face at the sight before her. She had to admit that it was nice seeing Vlad get attacked by Phantom—and for once, it looked like Phantom was winning, too. That was great, knowing what she did about the two of them.

“Wow,” noted Jazz softly, “looks like someone’s gotten better in the future.”

Looking rather surprised by this, Danny smiled at his sister, then his eyes drifted over to Valerie for a moment. He seemed to gauge her reaction for a second before offering her a small smile. She returned it easily, though she wasn’t sure what it was that he saw on her face.

After a moment, she turned to glance in the direction where she knew Vlad was sitting. His eyes were narrowed as he glared at the scene playing before them all, hands clearly clenched in anger at his future defeat by Phantom.

Valerie smirked and quickly turned back forward.

She was a little disappointed that this wasn’t showing them anything about the man’s actual plans and instead only his inevitable defeat and failure, but she would take this over nothing any day. This was better than watching him win, anyhow. And he definitely deserved a loss right about now—whenever this was.

The fact that the people defeating him were three teenagers was only the icing on the cake, honestly. This was… perfect. So far, honestly, this wish wasn’t even that bad.

Using Plasmius’s moment of dazedness, Phantom held his hands over his head and blue energy quickly appeared there, forming a giant snowball that he tossed in Plasmius’s direction. Unlike a regular snowball, though, it seemed to freeze the ghost on impact, locking him in a block of thick ice.

Phantom smirked and flew over to him. Turning intangible, he pulled out the infi-map easily.

“Seriously, dude,” he told the frozen Plasmius before the Specter Speeder approached, Phantom simply phasing through it so that he ended up inside. Then he poked his head out and smugly said “Therapy,” to Plasmius.

The vehicle sped away.

“Yes!” called people all over the theater.

“Eat hot fudge, ghost scum!”

“No, no, I don’t care if you stopped some evil ghost from going through with some evil plan,” snapped Mr. Manson as he rounded back on Sam. “You will not go to space, young lady! We’ll be keeping a close eye on you if you think of ever sneaking out to do something this… this…”

Sam’s granny said, “Awesome!”

Her son gave her a tired, disapproving look, like he wanted to argue with her but also didn’t feel like starting anything with his mother, which Valerie thought was smart of him. And, luckily, Sam’s mother wasn’t opening her mouth to protest either, though she still looked just as sour as she did before.

Humming a little, Jazz said, “You know, you’re right. He really does need therapy, doesn’t he?”

Valerie arched an eyebrow. Who was Jazz talking to? She figured she’d find the girl talking to Sam and Tucker—seeing as they’re the two people who are in the scene in the future—but she was a little baffled to see the ginger girl looking at her little brother instead.

Her chest constricted a little as an idea sparked to life in her head, making her twist her fingers through the fabric of her shirt uneasily. No. No, she didn’t want to think about it. She didn’t want to even consider the idea that Danny was… that he was…

Nope.

She glared ahead, forcibly shoving the thoughts out of her head. She didn’t want to figure out the fine details regarding Phantom yet—so she wasn’t going to allow herself to entertain this idea any further. She wasn’t ready to face it yet—just… not now. Not in a room full of people she didn’t know. Not when she couldn’t speak freely.

Moments later, Plasmius blasted the ice with his powers, sending the pieces of ice drifting around him in space before he flew quickly after the Speeder, shooting at it with his rays that missed and instead hit a satellite with an evil-looking metallic head on top of it. On the satellite was the pink letter ‘V’.

One of his shots hit something that burst into flames and made Plasmius freeze, his eyes growing large in alarm.

“The fusion reactor!” he cried. “If the flames reach it, it will explode!”

With a scowl, he flew into the satellite by going intangible and quickly made his way to another Specter Speeder—though this was one clearly not made by the Fentons, but rather by him.

“Taking my map, destroying my satellite, mocking my mental health—it’s time I finally finished off Danny Phantom once and for all.”

“As if he can actually take Phantom down,” scoffed Dash. “Phantom just defeated him! This jerk has no chance!”

But Valerie wasn’t so sure. She just saw a fight between Plasmius and Phantom with her own two eyes, in real life. And they barely got out of there, didn’t they? Phantom somehow dealt with Plasmius in the end, but he looked more than a little worn out by the time he caught up to Valerie and Danielle.

Despite her reluctance to believe it or even think about it, she found her eyes drifting toward Danny, who was glaring at the screen heatedly, like he took personal offence to what was being said there. Which would make sense if Valerie was right about—

No!

How could she possibly be correct? She knew Phantom was a jokester sometimes, and that he was reckless—seen by his refusal to save his own skin by just coming clean about what he truly was—but she never thought he’d be stupid enough to go out with a girl he knew wanted one half of him gone, okay?

Danny Fenton wouldn’t have wanted to go out with her while knowing she was the Red Huntress, because he’d have to be absolutely nuts to want to date a girl that had it out for his ghost half! No, it just didn’t make sense. No way was this the case here. Danny just… happened to look and sound a lot like Phantom.

Oh, yeah, and they shared a first name. And their last names kind of sounded similar, too—

No!

She shook her head sharply and felt Danny turning to look at her from behind Jazz, his earlier scowl now gone. Their eyes met for a brief moment and Valerie could see the cogs turning in his brain, trying to understand what she was thinking about, what she was putting together, what her conclusions were.

There was a part of her that was relieved to see he didn’t seem to be flinching away from her. She hated that part because she didn’t want to believe Danny had a reason to react poorly to her presence around him in the first place. But she still relaxed a little at the lack of any negativity he was exuding as he looked at her, seemingly realizing she was putting the pieces of the puzzle together in her head.

Breaking eye contact, Valerie set her jaw and determinedly looked at the screen again. She wasn’t going to think about it. No way. She didn’t want to think about it. Even if it was like a pounding wrecking ball in her head, insisting on crumbling down her defenses so that she’d accept the truth already and learn to live with it.

“If this really is about the future,” said Tucker, “we’ll be able to be prepared for whatever it is Vlad is planning to do to get rid of Danny.”

Maybe Valerie wasn’t supposed to hear it. She decidedly kept her eyes on the screen, not allowing them to stray back toward Danny and his sister and friends. If they thought they were being quiet enough, fine. And even if others could hear them, really, this wasn’t revealing anything. People knew that Phantom’s name was Danny. And they just saw Sam and Tucker helping Phantom, so… it wouldn’t be that strange.

“Yeah, we’ll be ready this time,” said Jazz confidently.

“Uh, are you forgetting that he’s in the room with us?” Danny hissed. “He’ll know what his plan would be and how it might fail—or succeed. He’ll be just as ready as we will, so all the advantage we might gain is kind of already gone.”

“Danny’s right,” whispered Sam. “We need to keep an eye on this possible future and on Vlad—see how he reacts to everything we see here. This might clue us in on what changes he might make.”

They nodded in agreement and sent conspicuous looks over their shoulders to try and spot Vlad in the crowd.

The scene switched. Instead of space, now it showed a random street of Amity Park, where Sam, Tucker and Danny (Fenton) stood together and stared tiredly at the Fenton RV that just crashed into a water hydrant that was tossed out of place, releasing a sprout of water right in front of the Fentons’ faces.

“Uh…” said Jack hesitantly, “city water supply A-okay!”

“Yep, normal,” said Tucker.

Sam stared at the scene before her, not reacting at all, and Danny’s expression drooped a little at the sight before him. Until they all tensed when a sort of blue mist escaped Danny’s lips, almost instantly followed by the loud crash of a shop wall breaking to reveal a familiar ghost hovering there with a smile.

“Technus,” groaned Danny. “Why is it always him?”

“Or Skulker,” noted Sam flatly. “Or Ember, or the Lunch Lady, or Walker, or—”

“Yeah, o-okay, I get it. We have a lot of reoccurring ghosts,” Danny cut her off quickly, squirming in place. “At least Technus always announces what he plans to do. It helps.”

Jazz cleared her throat pointedly. “Uh, maybe you’d want to keep your voices down, guys,” she said warningly. “I mean, you’re not exactly being subtle here.”

Valerie forced herself not to look in their direction, but she could still swear she could feel Danny’s sister looking at her, like she wanted them to realize who was sitting right next to them and might attack them if they said the wrong thing. It made her feel sick all over again, knowing that four—no, three—people were convinced she might actually do something to one of them if she caught on to what they were talking about.

“Jazz, as much as I hate to say this,” said Danny, voice a little strained, “I don’t think we’ll be able to keep this a secret much longer considering what we’re watching. Desiree won’t be considerate of something like this. Besides… I trust everyone we’re sitting next to.”

The pang in her chest intensified at the words and Valerie pursed her lips. It pained her to know Danny had to say that he trusted her for people to believe it. She thought they were friends all along—and maybe they were—but how could they be true friends when the people closest to Danny actually believed she might hunt him down?

The little voice in her head objecting the implications of that was almost nonexistent anymore—because she knew the truth. She knew what they were talking about and what it all meant. She heard them, she heard what Phantom had to say; she could almost see the events of the past more clearly now, with this new point of view in mind.

God, she’d snapped at Danny that she couldn’t help with the flour sack project all that much because of her jobs, and he’d been less than impressed with that excuse back then because… because he didn’t know about the Nasty Burger job—only about the ghost hunting that involved her chasing him with guns blazing.

No wonder he was so annoyed with her back then. No wonder Skulker had kidnapped the two of them, talking about how the sack was important to them both and not only her. Skulker knew. The ghosts all knew who Danny was. Which kind of baffled her, because why haven’t they just revealed his secret to the humans?

But no, no, that wasn’t the point! The point was that Danny’s actions—Phantom’s actions—made so much more sense now. And she couldn’t unsee it, no matter how much her brain tried to deny this was an actual possibility.

“But, Danny—”

“You can’t be serious—”

“Dude, we’ve told you, this is a bad idea—”

“Guys, she knows,” Danny cut them off.

At that, Valerie finally turned to look at them all again, no longer hiding the fact that she’s been listening in on their conversation all along. Jazz’s eyes were wide, but she seemed to realize there was no point in acting oblivious at this point; Sam looked like she might strangle Valerie if she so much as blinked the wrong way; Tucker looked dumbfounded and a little alarmed, but he mostly didn’t move.

Trying hard to ignore their gazes, Valerie focused on Danny. She expected to see some form of hesitance on his face—something to let her know he was still wary of this, of her knowing the truth. But he looked at her just like he always did—like he was looking at a friend rather than a possible enemy or threat.

“Wha—how long has she known?” demanded Sam.

“A few minutes,” said Valerie.

“Valerie and I were talking right before all of this,” explained Danny. “She figured out I was a halfa. And then we talked about Vlad, and she made the wish. It was an accident, but…” He shrugged, looking less than impressed. “I mean, it’s not the end of the world. And I told you—people are going to find out the truth soon because of this.”

They all glanced at the screen warily, where Technus was busy ranting about his achievements so far that day, floating next to a terrified clerk that shook in place, frozen in fear.

Then Sam focused back on Valerie. “I swear to God, Valerie, if you still plan on attacking Danny later—”

“Of course I’m not!” she snapped. “I don’t hurt humans—I’m honestly shocked I even have to point it out. Besides, I would have attacked him before we got here if that weren’t the case. Maybe you should start trusting Danny when he tells you that I can be trusted.”

They glared at each other hotly until Danny put a hand on Sam’s shoulder, calmly dragging her back in her seat until she couldn’t keep her eyes on Valerie. Jazz didn’t touch Valerie, but she did offer her a small smile. There was still caution in her gaze, but Valerie decided she couldn’t hold it against her when she was one of the people who kept on actively hunting down her little brother.

“Well, I’m glad you figured it out,” the ginger told her. “It’s a relief to know that there’s one less person on the list of people who want to end Danny’s life and afterlife.”

Well, this made Valerie’s intestines twist unpleasantly but she tried not to show it too much as she nodded once, then turned determinedly back to the screen. There was nothing more she could say—not before speaking to Danny in private to hush out… everything.

Her head was pounding from all of the new information…

Tucker and Sam stared at the ghost with no small amount of frustration rather than fear, and Danny glared at him.

“I’m going ghost!” he said and ran into an alleyway right around the corner.

The moment he was away from the people in the street, a ring of white light appeared at his waist and split into two, travelling up and down his body to change his appearance until he was wearing a black hazmat suit with white boots and gloves, the familiar symbol on his chest bold against its black background.

His hair turned from black to white, his blue eyes switching to a glowing green color that looked unnatural, but very familiar to people who’ve seen ectoplasm before. His body glowed softly, like ghosts’ bodies always did, and his legs merged immediately, forming a wispy tail that twisted behind him as he took off the ground and flew out of the alley with a determined scowl.

The video froze as frantic voices started rising all around.

“Wait, what?”

“No way! This did not just happen!”

“Danny Fenton is Danny Phantom—! Oh, wait, I just heard it…”

“Holy moly! This makes no sense!”

“No, no, this makes perfect sense—”

“Danny’s my ghost boy? This makes things so much easier!”

“Isn’t he the son of ghost hunters?”

“What in the world…”

“I knew it! I told you—”

“Shut up, Wes!”

“Danny!” a pair of voices said in alarm, looking at their son, completely aghast.

People wheezed in panic and shock at the scene, everyone either captivated by the transformation on the screen, or turning to stare at Danny Fenton, who squirmed in his seat, looking like he wanted to just turn invisible and intangible and completely disappear.

To be honest, Valerie herself, despite already knowing what was coming, couldn’t help but gawp a little. She knew Danny was Phantom, but seeing it with her own two eyes left no more room for doubt. Danny Fenton was Danny Phantom—no excuses allowed. She just saw him change—similarly to Vlad, only the ring of light was white instead of black.

Somehow, this made her racing heart calm down a little—knowing that their transformation wasn’t similar. Instead, his transformation was the same as the one Dani had; which made a lot of sense, seeing as she was a clone of Danny—

Ugh, this headache wasn’t going to go away any time soon, and the loud voices from all around weren’t helping.

“Oh, crud,” muttered Danny to himself, his shoulders curling inwardly.

“Danny,” his mom said, voice strained as she looked at him from nearby, her eyes wide open and her expression utterly baffled and pained and horrified. “You’re—the ghost boy?”

“Right under our roof—and we haven’t even noticed, Maddie,” muttered Jack, his voice surprisingly subdued and lacking its usual loudness.

Valerie wanted to laugh hysterically, her own words smacking her in the face. After all, she’d told Danny—Phantom—that the Fentons wouldn’t be able to find a ghost if it was living under their own roof—and his reaction was a quiet mutter of “True,” which should have alerted her to the fact that she was on to something, yet she’d just dismissed it, not lingering on his easy acceptance of that claim.

Shoot, she’s been collecting clues all along without even noticing it.

Maddie’s eyes grew even larger as they welled with tears. “No. No, no, no…” she muttered, each word making Danny flinch a little more. “We shot Danny—we shot our boy.” She grabbed Jack’s arm tightly, as if to try and ground herself. “We hurt him, Jack—all this time…”

From several rows behind her, Valerie could hear Dash’s distinct voice commenting on how he’s been shoving his hero into lockers for years now. She didn’t even bother acknowledging this. Shoving him into lockers was nothing compared to chasing him with guns or strapping and torturing him. If Danny could find it in himself to forgive Valerie, surely he could do so with Dash—even if he didn’t actually get along with the guy in the first place.

“Mom, Dad, it’s okay,” said Danny uncertainly. “I mean, you didn’t know—I never told you—”

“And you had every right not to tell us, sweetie,” said Maddie, tears still slipping down her cheeks. “We kept on talking about hunting and dissecting and tearing ghosts apart… I’d be terrified, too.”

Jack looked like he was incapable of forming any words, his eyes moving from the screen to Danny, as if trying to spot all of the similarities between Phantom and his son that have been missed by, well, everyone. Valerie could see the recognition hitting him; the pain at realizing what they’ve done weighing down on his shoulders.

She could relate to this.

Danny shook his head. “No, I-I knew you’d get it. I knew you’d accept this if you found out the truth. It’s happened before, and I made everyone forget, but I knew I could trust you. I just…” he trailed off and shook his head helplessly before setting his jaw. “I just wasn’t ready for people to know.”

Nodding, Maddie pressed a hand against her heart. “We understand, honey, we really do. And I wish this didn’t have to come out like this.”

She gestured around at the hall that was filled with chattering people who all got up to look at Danny, try and spot him between everyone. Valerie honestly thought Danny might turn invisible at all of the attention he was getting, just to get away from all the staring and murmuring. But instead he just tried to square his shoulders a little, as if fighting off his uneasiness.

“But we love you,” said Jack, his boisterous voice strangely soft. “Whether you’re a boy, ghost, or something in between.”

Maddie nodded. “So, so much, sweetie.”

Danny didn’t look surprised in the least. In fact, there was a glint in his eyes that made Valerie guess he’s heard this reaction from them before. If his identity really has been revealed sometime in the past, then maybe his parents had told him the same things back then, too.

“I know,” he told his parents. “This still means more to me than you’ll ever understand.”

Yeah, he was definitely remembering another similar conversation.

Since his parents were in the row before them, they couldn’t exactly hug Danny, but he still leaned forward to hold them the best he could for a moment. Valerie tried not to stare at them as his parents put their arms around him, clearly relieved to see that Danny wasn’t shying away from them after everything that’s happened.

“Um…” someone said slowly, tentatively, “hasn’t Danny Phantom stolen those jewels that one time?”

Danny let go of his parents and groaned. “Oh, don’t remind me…” he grumbled.

“He was mind-controlled,” said Sam instantly, her eyes scanning the crowd of people, searching the person who’d voiced that thought. “All those ghosts back then were controlled by Freakshow.”

“He also shot the Fentons—I mean, his parents—back when there was that huge ghost invasion,” added someone else.

“Dude, what?” said Tucker, turning to look at Danny with wide, slightly mirthful eyes.

Danny flushed and his hand came up to rub the back of his neck. “I thought they were being overshadowed by ghosts! Can you blame me?” His voice cracked as he looked around anxiously. “So many people I knew were overshadowed back then because Walker wanted to ruin my life. I thought he got them, too.”

“We believe you, Danny-boy!” said Jack, some of his usual bravado returning to him as he beamed at his son. “Don’t we, Mads?”

“Of course we do,” agreed Danny’s mom sternly, sending a look around, as if to warn people against going against Danny in front of her again. “We’ve been blind to this until now, but I know everything you’ve done all this time was to try and help. We trust you.”

He grinned at them, his eyes momentarily glassier than usual. Then he blinked and it was gone—though Valerie was sure for a moment there he was about to shed a tear or two. She wouldn’t have blamed him if he did—this was probably a very impactful moment for him.

As if wanting them to shut up already, the video on the huge screen unfroze and drew everyone’s attention back to it, even though Valerie could still see more than a few people repeatedly glancing in Danny’s direction, their eyes gleaming in the dark room as they seemingly waited for something unnatural to happen before their eyes.

Flying quickly into the electronic store, Phantom kept himself behind Technus, then punched him hard, sending the ghost flying through a wall and back out, his stolen items falling now that his concentration was lost.

“Next register, cyber-jerk!” said Phantom.

He flew over to the hole in the wall to confront Technus, who was now accompanied by a sort of… car merged with robotic arms and legs—and it was glowering at Danny.

“Behold, ghost child!” announced Technus with a proud smirk. “The perfect combination of technology, past and future—the car-puter! It will drive you… to your doom!” he laughed.

“This is… surreal,” commented someone.

“Awesome—but weird,” agreed another one.

From the row ahead, Maddie seemed to be tensing in her seat, muttering, “Oh, this is so much worse now that I know it’s Danny that’s fighting this thing.”

“He’ll do fine!” said Jack confidently. “He’s a Fenton, after all—fighting ghosts is in his blood!”

Danny’s lips tugged up in amusement at that, though he didn’t say anything to his parents. Instead, he turned to his friends and said, “This is going to be long, isn’t it?”

“Just be grateful my parents haven’t jumped down your throat about all of this yet,” said Sam dismissively. “Trust me, this is bound to happen, and it will not be pretty.”

“On the bright side, you can learn from this fight what you should do to make it end even faster,” said Tucker. “I’d take notes, but my PDA isn’t here. Not sure why, considering it’s not really a weapon like your parents’ crazy inventions…”

“You did use it to fight Skulker,” noted Sam.

Danny threw a look over his shoulder. “Yeah, we could use this information—if Vlad doesn’t decide to make things worse, somehow.” He frowned. “I won’t be surprised if this thing keeps his secret intact and only reveals mine—as far as I’m concerned, Desiree has no vendetta against him.”

“But people know you’re Danny Phantom now,” said Tucker. “If you tell them Vlad’s Plasmius, they’ll believe you, won’t they?”

“Maybe.”

Valerie pursed her lips but didn’t comment. She wanted to take Vlad down, of course, but without seeing everything this video was supposed to show them, she wasn’t sure how to go about it. Were people going to believe Danny now that they knew the truth? Maybe. Or maybe they’ll try to get rid of him now that they knew he was a ghost.

Some people were bound to only see the bad stuff he’s done and focus on it. They were probably going to focus on his ghost half, claim he was wearing Danny’s skin or overshadowing him or something to explain this. Valerie knew she would have done the same had she not been more involved in this than most people.

Danny charged forward only to halt when the car’s hood opened and the engine came flying out to punch him. It him squarely in the chest, tossing him back so that he smacked against a wall with enough force to make it crack.

Then he fell to the ground and brought a hand up to rub against his head.

People flinched at the display.

Valerie forced herself to take in a deep breath and then exhale. It was strange, how she went from being indifferent to hurting ghosts, to seeing Phantom himself getting punched and feeling a vindictive burst of protectiveness blossoming in her chest.

This wasn’t just the half-ghost she struck a truce with not long ago, though—this was her first real friend from school, Danny. He’s been the first to want to befriend Valerie after she got kicked off the A-List who didn’t have any ulterior motive. He was someone she cared about a lot—and she was seeing him get hurt.

That hit made his body crack a wall! How resilient did Danny have to be to just walk such a thing off?

“Great,” grumbled Danny. “My first car accident and I’m not even driving yet.”

A few people snorted with laughter at the comment.

He flew upward and went to catch back up to the car-puter, but it started driving away from him and toward Tucker and Sam, its tires creating friction against the ground to form a cloud of smoke behind—one that Danny flew right into.

“Hey!” he started hacking and coughing before the smoke cleared. Then his eyes widened in alarm when he saw the car’s target. “Tucker! Sam!”

Said teenagers stood in place and raised their arms protectively as they screamed in alarm at the approaching threat. But instead of reaching them, something caught onto the car-puter’s leg, halting its advance and keeping it in place.

Everyone gasped in surprise, looking around to try and figure out what was going on, their gazes quickly zeroing in on three red-cladded teens that were smirking at the car-puter while holding all kinds of gadgets.

“Huh?” said Danny, perking up. “What’s happening?”

“Who are these guys?” demanded Sam.

Tucker just heaved a sigh of relief. “We’re alive!” he cheered.

“Tucker!” they both snapped at him.

Valerie arched an eyebrow at the scene playing before them. She had no idea who these people were, either, though they were clearly ghost-hunters. The fact that they were obviously teenagers was almost laughable at this point—it looked like most ghost hunters in Amity Park were high-schoolers, which was honestly just sad.

But a voice in her mind whispered to her that this was wrong. While it made sense that Danny could fight ghosts—he did share the same powers as most of them, after all—it was hard to believe that just any teenager could face ghosts that easily. Valerie herself wouldn’t have been able to do it without Vlad’s money being thrown at her in order to get her a suit and weapons.

Normal teenagers shouldn’t be able to just get their hands on ghost-hunting gear, though. It should be expensive and difficult to obtain. So where the heck did these three get their weapons? Not to mention how slick it all looked—this was clearly paid for graciously. So either they were rich, or they had some kind of doner—just like Valerie.

“Yo!” said one of the teens—the one holding the rope that held the car-puter in place. “I got it Vid!”

“Awesome, Thrash!” said a girl. She turned to the last teenage boy. “Take it, Download.”

Jazz wrinkled her nose. “Vid, Thrash and Download?” she repeated. “Kind of lame, isn’t it?”

She received three sets of identical unimpressed looks from Danny, Sam and Tucker. Valerie didn’t understand why she got this as a response when she was very clearly right with this assessment, but apparently Jazz understood because she sheepishly smiled at the three.

“Who are those guys?” someone asked.

“Who cares? They’re handling the ghost!” someone else said.

“I don’t remember seeing them before,” noted Angela—Tucker’s mom. “They haven’t been around when all those ghosts hunters were offered the prize money if they caught Phantom—I mean, Danny.” She blanched. “Oh, goodness, they were all after you, dear…”

Danny just shrugged. “It was fine.”

Was Valerie imagining things, or did Danny just send a glare in Vlad’s direction, as if blaming him for that incident? She grimaced and gulped thickly. Sure, she knew that back then Vlad’d asked her to stay out of this competition, but he never explained why. Now she figured it was because he had some kind of plan in motion.

Clearly, it didn’t work, seeing as Danny was free and about, not captured in some kind of evil lab. Thank God.

“I sucked you into the Fenton Weasel!” cried Maddie, her hands covering her mouth.

Jack furrowed his eyebrows. “Wait a minute,” he said slowly. “I remember that—you came to me so I could capture you myself. Danny, what were you thinking?”

“I was trying to make it up to you,” mumbled Danny under his breath, then he quickly said, “Anyway, no, these guys weren’t around back then. Honestly, they look more competent than those amateurs.” He blinked. “Uh, and my parents,” he added quickly.

There were mixed expressions on Maddie and Jack’s faces as they smiled at him—like they were torn between appreciating his support, and feeling a little sick at the thought of this meaning that he acknowledged the fact that he’s been trying to avoid their shots at him this entire time.

Again, Valerie could relate.

Holding out his hand, Download activated something on his wrist that caught the car-puter in a red beam that sucked it into the device.

“Downloaded,” he said smugly. “Shaw.”

“Uh, who are those guys?” said Sam.

“I don’t know,” said Tucker as Danny floated up to them, staring at the three hunters along with his friends, “but those are the coolest jumpsuits I’ve ever seen!”

Danny glared at him.

Tucker noticed him quickly and added, “Uh, except yours, of course. Black is very slimming.”

“Really, Tuck?” Danny drawled out.

“Seriously, though,” said Tucker. “They look awesome!”

Sam wrinkled her nose. “They look… over-confident.”

Narrowing his eyes at the screen, Danny crossed his arms over his chest. “Not to mention how they just appeared out of nowhere right after Vlad swore to take me down. This can’t be a coincidence.”

Stomach rolling, Valerie gritted her teeth. She didn’t want to imagine Vlad deceiving three more teenagers other than herself. She really, really hoped that wasn’t the case—because that meant that she hasn’t actually managed to do anything against him between now and this future.

“Maybe they’re open to working together?” said Jazz weakly.

“Sure, Jazz,” said her brother. “Because we just have this kind of luck.”

She shrugged. “You never know.”

Technus glared at the three new arrivals as a crowd started gathering all around to watch the interesting scene.

“Adolescents? How dare you?” he demanded, not noticing the way Vid held her hand up and shot two glowing discs at him. “And another thing—the high tech look is my bit! ARGH!!”

The discs embedded themselves in his chest and electrocuted him, making the ghost fall to his knees before Download captured him in another red ray that sucked Technus away.

“Ghost guy gone, area’s safe,” said the teenager. “Have a righteous day.”

Then the three struck a pose and declared, “Masters’ Blasters stop disasters!”

The crowd cheered and surrounded them immediately.

“Masters’ Blasters?” growled Valerie.

Danny groaned. “I knew it.”

“V-man!” cheered Jack. “Of course, the best mayor of Amity Park’s got our back!”

She wasn’t sure if she saw correctly, but Valerie thought she saw Maddie cringing a little before smoothing her expression quickly. Was Maddie aware of what Vlad was? Or was she just not a fan of his? All this time she knew Danny himself didn’t like Vlad for some reason—now she knew why. But was Maddie really aware of the whole truth?

For some reason, Valerie got the feeling there was something else Maddie was thinking of in regard to Vlad. Honestly, there were probably more than enough reasons to dislike the man—reasons Valerie’s been ignoring for a while now. Well, not anymore.

Her body buzzed angrily as people all around the hall voiced their support of whatever it was that Vlad was doing. After all, Amity Park was a place that was all too familiar with ghost attacks—the mayor working hard to assign his own team that would take care of this nuisance was, well, incredible.

If only they knew the truth about him, though…

Okay, so maybe without context they might just see him as someone like Danny—a half-ghost that had the best intentions at heart. After all, he was their mayor, and he’s been a pretty good one so far. But if they could just see more bad sides of him… if they had irrefutable evidence that Vlad was nothing like Danny…

She crossed her fingers and hoped Desiree was at least kind enough to reveal him and not only Danny.

Vid held up her hand and pressed a button on her watch, which made a hologram hover in the air next to her, the image of Vlad appearing on it and silencing everyone around as they focused on what the video had to say.

“Greetings, citizens,” said holographic Vlad. “I hope you’ve enjoyed this presentation of Amity Park’s newest teen ghost fighting team, Masters’ Blasters.”

“Masters’ Blasters?” repeated Danny, Sam and Tucker as they stared at the hologram from outside the ring of interested, excited people.

“As mayor,” Vlad went on, “I provided town funding for this top notch troop. Equipped with the latest teen technology, they’re going to stop ghosts and succeed where Danny Phantom has so obviously failed.” He smirked at the camera, clearly expecting Danny to see this.

Danny whirled around quickly to glare at Vlad, and Valerie was only a little taken aback by the way his eyes flashed to that familiar shade of green, glowing as he growled at the man.

“Well, we do have a ghost problem in the town,” the man said smoothly without missing a beat. “And I’m sure you’d appreciate some help, wouldn’t you, Daniel? Wouldn’t it make it easier to focus on school and friends to have more competent ghost fighters out there besides yourself?”

People nodded all around at the words, sending their mayor grateful smiles and praises. Apparently, they all forgot that in this future Vlad supposedly didn’t even know that Phantom was Fenton. Emphasis on supposedly. Heck, even Danny’s dad was glowing with pride, blabbering on and on about how amazing his old college buddy was.

“It wouldn’t hurt you to put more effort into your school work, Mr. Fenton,” agreed Mr. Lancer.

Closing his eyes, Danny seemed to try and collect himself as he turned back to face the front, his hands clenched in his lap like he was holding himself back from taking a swing at Vlad. Valerie would honestly join him if he decided to fight the man—even if it was in front of all these people.

“Just ignore him, Danny,” said Sam quietly, her hand coming up to rest on his shoulder. “He’s clearly trying to rile you up—so don’t let him.”

“But what even is his plan?” he said. “I mean, is this supposed to make everyone hate me again somehow? Or… what? What’s the goal?”

“Considering how you usually end up falling right into his traps, I’d say we should just sit back and watch what happens,” noted Tucker.

Danny’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “Great. This is gonna be fun.”

Biting her lip, Jazz said with forceful cheerfulness, “Well, at least he won’t be able to use the same trick on you in the future, right? So whatever we see, it’s not going to be happening to you for real.”

Something flashed in Danny’s eyes—not the green spark from before, but something darker. “I hate time shenanigans,” he grumbled.

Valerie had no idea what was going through Danny’s mind right now, but the significant look the three others shared clued her into the fact that they were all aware of what made Danny so solemn. And their following silence also told her that they weren’t sure how to make things better, either.

“Teen ghost fighters?” Sam repeated suspiciously.

“Teen technology?” Tucker added.

Danny frowned at the image of Vlad. “Where Danny Phantom has so obviously failed?”

Vlad continued to talk to the crowd. “My plan is very simple—out with the old, and in with the new!” He smirked at the camera. “And the old should give up now if he knows what’s good for him.”

Balling his hands into fists, Phantom scowled at Vlad’s image.

“If he knows what’s good for him?” repeated Maurice Foley dumbly. “Wait, you mean Phantom specifically?”

“Of course not!” argued someone from the back of the room. “Why would Mr. Masters want to get rid of Phantom—we all know he’s helping the town. He’d be a fool to drive him away. He was probably talking about the losers running around, pretending to know what they’re doing.”

The jab at the Fentons was clear enough for both Jazz and Danny to send matching glares to the person in the back, though it was far less intense when Danny’s eyes remained their normal shade of blue.

“I’m confused, though,” said Tucker. “Does he really think this is going to make Danny stop?”

“He’s an idiot if he thinks these guys can defeat ghosts better than Danny can,” stated Sam firmly.

Danny smirked a little. “Well, we already knew that.”

“All you need to do to prove him wrong, is defeat those ghosts before Masters’ Blasters even get the chance to show up at the scene. And with your experience, it should be a sinch.”

Despite his grin, Valerie thought she could see a spark of hesitation in Danny’s eyes as he turned back to face the screen, his leg bouncing up and down with nerves he wasn’t successfully hiding. Sam and Tucker clearly noticed it as well because they exchanged a look between themselves, not saying a word.

Jazz nudged Danny’s side lightly. “Relax, little brother. You’ve dealt with Vlad before—you’ll be able to do it again. I believe in you.”

He didn’t respond, just nodded once and kept on staring ahead.

“This is great!” called Jack Fenton obliviously. “We could all team up and fight ghosts together! Isn’t that right, Danny? Jazz could join, too—we’ll make it a family thing!”

Maddie’s earlier uneasiness was gone now as she turned to give both her kids a beaming smile that they smiled back at quickly. Apparently it was convincing enough to fool Maddie and Jack, but Valerie could see the siblings’ unease—after all, they were waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Chapter Text

The scene changed.

Danny, Sam and Tucker were sitting at the stairs in front of a house, watching as people stood on both sides of the road to cheer up Masters’ Blasters. The three new ghost fighters were standing on a hovercraft that was slowly moving down the street, throwing out dolls of themselves to their fans who caught them happily.

Instead of celebrating with the others, Tucker was reading a newspaper, Danny leaned his head on his hands and stared at his feet, and Sam looked at her dejected friend worriedly.

“Uh-oh,” said Tucker and Sam.

Danny’s eye twitched as he turned to look at Valerie. “How come you wished to know about Vlad, and here we are, watching me instead?” he demanded, sounding frustrated but not accusatory.

She shrugged helplessly. “Because what he plans has to do with you?”

“Because Desiree hates you?” suggested Sam.

His body sagged at that and he ran his hand down his face. He looked so weary and done with this whole thing already—and that was when he was only watching what was going to happen rather than experiencing it himself.

“Hmm,” said Tucker, “three news photos of you in your underwear, nine more and you can have your own calendar.”

Danny sank in his seat. “I don’t even want to know,” he mumbled.

“How did we go from a team competing with you to inappropriate pictures of you in the newspaper?” said Sam.

A few people chuckled within the room. Valerie glanced around and noticed that some of those people included kids they went to school with, although none of the in-crowd joined in. It was like an alternate universe where the popular kids who always mocked and bullied Danny were suddenly grim and serious when it came to him, refusing to enjoy and bask in his misery.

It felt strange.

Shaking the oddness off, Valerie glanced back to see Vlad looking intently at the screen, his fingers crossed under his chin as he studied what they were seeing, nodding to himself and clearly taking mental notes. It made her sick to realize that the one he was trying to take down was a literal teenager—one that was half dead, at that.

“Oh, sweetie,” said Maddie, “I’m sure it’s not that bad. You’ll bounce right back like you always do. You’re stronger than that. It’s just a minor setback, I’m sure.”

Inhaling and exhaling slowly, Danny closed his eyes for a moment before looking at his mom with a small smile. “Thanks, Mom.”

“Just make sure you don’t wear embarrassing underwear, Danny-boy!”

Danny’s shoulders hunched when a few more people joined the laughter.

“This is serious, Tucker!” snapped Danny. “As far as this town is concerned, Vlad’s goons have totally replaced Danny Phantom.”

“Why is this a bad thing?” someone asked in confusion. “What matters is that the town is safe, no?”

“Enjoying the spotlight a bit too much there, ghost boy?” someone else cackled.

“Don’t be stupid,” a woman scolded them. “If Phantom wanted recognition, he would have shared his secret with the town a long time ago. He’s clearly worried about something more serious than just how he’s perceived.”

Maurice nodded. “Like the way Mr. Masters talked about him earlier, right?” he said. “That was weird. Kind of giving me, uh, bad vibes.”

Tucker nodded. “Like rotten meatloaf.”

His father beamed. “Exactly!”

Valerie gave the father-son duo a weirded-out look but didn’t say anything.

A woman and her child turned away from the parading Masters’ Blaster to address the teens sitting behind them on the steps. They smiled at them, their eyes lighting up.

“Did you say Danny Phantom?” the woman said. “He’s wonderful!”

“He’s my hero!” declared the boy who hugged a Danny Phantom doll closely.

Before Danny could blink, the two turned back around and the woman caught a doll of Thrash, handing it to her son with a bright grin.

“But he’s yesterday’s news,” the woman continued obliviously. “Masters’ Blasters gave us cool stuff!”

The little kid threw the Danny Phantom doll into a puddle and enthusiastically grabbed his new doll. “Masters’ Blasters stop disasters!” he called happily.

“Oh, shoot,” a familiar voice said, and it only took Valerie a moment to realize it was the voice of the woman from the video. “That was a bit rude of us. Granted, we didn’t know we were saying this to Danny Phantom, but… I’m sorry.”

Danny’s eyes were trained on the screen, though, unrelenting from the image of the soaked doll of his alter-ego. He waved his hand dismissively at the woman, his lips pressed tightly as he clearly held himself back from speaking up. Probably since he would have said something he didn’t want to reveal—or something he wasn’t sure how people would take.

Maybe about Vlad.

“Whatever everyone might think, you’ll always be our hero, Danny,” said Maddie confidently.

The scene switched to show the Fentons all down in the lab along with Tucker and Sam. Maddie and Jack were busy working on the ghost portal, which was now switched off so they could safely tinker with it, while Danny sat on a stool in the same position from before with Sam, Tucker and Jazz standing nearby.

“I always knew that Phantom kid was a menace!” declared Jack as he turned to frown at the kids. “Not only did he nearly kill Sam and Tucker, but he destroyed a perfectly good parade balloon”—he lowered a pair of goggles over his eyes—“and that’s just playing un-American.”

Maddie wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Well, now we know you’re a hero, Danny,” she amended.

“You destroyed a parade balloon?” Jack blinked at the scene, clearly confused. “And what in the world are we doing to the portal?”

“That’s the portal?” someone asked eagerly. “You mean the ghost portal?”

“The one and only!”

Paling a little, Danny glanced at Sam and Tucker. “What does it mean that I nearly got you both killed?” he said, his voice slightly hoarse.

“I’m sure it’s nothing, Danny,” said Sam.

Tucker nodded. “Yeah, it was probably a misunderstanding. We know you’ll never hurt us, man.”

This didn’t seem to make Danny feel better as he hunched his shoulders and glared at the screen in distaste.

Valerie was beginning to regret her wish even more. This was slowly revealing Vlad’s plan, sure, but it was also stressing her friend out and she never intended to do that.

She knew that she wasn’t Danny’s best friend—that was Sam and Tucker’s role in his life. They were much closer to Danny than she ever could be. And still, Danny was her best friend. Valerie’s pulled away from everyone else after what happened to her and her dad with that ghost dog, and the only person she got close to since then was, well, Danny.

Which honestly made all of this so much worse. First she hunted him relentlessly for a very long time, then she tortured him, and now she was making him watch this future where he was clearly going through a lot because of Vlad and, she figured, his self-esteem issues.

He really should have gone around the town to let everyone know that there was a dangerous wishing ghost out there that people should be wary of—not that she would’ve listened to Phantom before, but maybe she would have kept her guard up while making a thoughtless wish.

“But Dad,” said Jazz defensively, “it was just an accident. I, for one, am glad there’s someone out there protecting us.”

She sent Danny a smile and a wink, but he only lowered his gaze to the floor, still looking depressed.

“Me too,” agreed Jack. “And they’re called Masters’ Blasters! Vladdie’s team has style, guts, acne, and they’re humans! Plus, they gave me this zippity-keen-o poster!” He gestured toward a large poster of Masters’ Blaster with a written dedication written on it that he read out loud: “To the old guy in the orange suit. Stop bothering us!!!”

Jazz groaned and Danny face-palmed.

“Why are your folks messing with the Fenton Portal?” asked Tucker.

Jazz shrugged. “Dad’s breaking it down so he can update the software. He says this way he’ll be able to catch ghosts and download songs faster.”

“Isn’t science awesome?” said Tucker blissfully.

Sam grinned and walked closer to Danny, who frowned at her warily. “It kind of looks the same way it did when you first got your ghost powers, Danny,” she noted cheerfully.

“Can we stop talking about my ghost powers?” snapped Danny, keeping his voice low enough to not be heard by his parents. “They’re causing me nothing but problems lately.” He looked back down grimly. “I’m starting to think that maybe we’d all be better off without ‘em.”

Sam and Tucker’s eyebrows raised spectacularly high after hearing this, their mouths falling open. Jazz looked just as shocked at the words as she blinked at the screen, as if expecting the scene on it to backtrack and claim to be false.

Unlike them, Valerie could see Danny’s eyes sparking with a small bit of interest, like the idea of getting rid of his powers was intriguing and appealing. And sure, maybe Valerie didn’t know everything—not even close—but she figured that having to hide all of this from everyone has been difficult and uncomfortable.

Sure, they weren’t friends the entire time since Danny got his powers, she knew, but even she’s noticed the way his school work had taken a dive when they were fourteen, seemingly out of nowhere. There was this month when wherever Danny went, things seemed to go wrong. He was still not allowed to touch anything breakable in the chemistry lab. And the chances of seeing him sitting in detention after school was less than unexpected at this point.

And that was only what happened to him in school. Danny also had to deal with fighting other ghosts, avoiding his parents and Valerie, and evading the Guys in White who kept on coming after him, clearly determined to catch and tear him apart so they could study him—no sympathy in their hearts.

Was it really hard to imagine wanting to get rid of the powers that were the cause of all of that? No. Valerie could see the appeal in getting rid of them for the sake of finally having a normal life again. Danny was never the kind of guy to hog the spotlight, usually sticking to the sidelines and staying there with his friends. So for him to want his quiet, normal life back would be understandable.

But then there was the other side of the coin, of course. Danny Fenton’s life has been a rollercoaster lately, taking him on wild rides he clearly wasn’t all that fond of. But Danny Phantom’s been around for a while now, and he was doing some real good. Sure, Valerie’s been ignoring all this good, thinking she needed to take care of the ghost that kept on returning to the town as if it belonged to him, but in retrospect…

While she knew that Dany Fenton didn’t like the attention and the recognition in most situations, his ghost half seemed to flourish under it. He was a witty, cocky, confident person. It wasn’t debatable—all those things have been getting on Valerie’s nerves until not too long ago, after all, so she would know.

And sure, Danny’s dream was to become an astronaut, but could he really just leave this gig as a ghost vigilante behind? After he’s been doing it for such a long time? So far Valerie’s been looking at it as almost a game for the ghost, but now she could tell that Danny actually cared—about everyone in Amity Park, not just his friends and family.

The story Dash has been telling everyone in school—the one where he and Phantom had apparently gone on an adventure together—was enough evidence for her. If Danny could overlook the fact that Dash has been bullying him for years on end so they could work together and avoid the danger that was after them, then he really wasn’t in it just to take care of the ones he cared about. After all, Dash wasn’t exactly included in that list.

No matter how much Valerie tried to alter this whole thing in her mind, she couldn’t see Danny just leaving this life behind. Or not regretting it for the rest of his life, at least.

“Danny,” said Maddie slowly, turning to face her son again. She looked hesitant, unsure. “If you want to get rid of these, um, powers, I’m sure we can look into it.”

For a moment Danny stared at her blankly, his eyes swimming with silent thoughts. Then he offered her a small smile and shook his head. “Thanks, Mom, but… I’m okay.”

“Well, if you ever change your mind, just say the word,” said Jack. “We’ll be on it in an instant! Won’t we, Mads?”

“But know that whatever you want, we’ll support your decision,” his mom promised.

Danny’s smile softened a little at the words and he nodded.

“Well, now we know what Vlad’s up to,” grumbled Sam. “He’s trying to make you give up your powers, Danny—that’s the point of Masters’ Blasters. They’re only there so that you’d feel useless.”

“I hate to say it, but it’s actually kind of a good plan,” whispered Jazz.

“Well, now we’re ready for it,” responded Danny, but he still sounded too much like he could also relate to what his alternate self on the screen was going through.

Jazz, Tucker and Sam exchanged a look over Danny’s head, not saying a word.

The scene changed again. Danny, Sam, Tucker and Jazz were peeking through a doorway to look into the living room, where Masters’ Blasters were standing in front of Maddie and Jack, who were both trapped against a wall by a glowing, red net.

“By order of the mayor, you’re both under arrest for harboring a ghost,” said Download.

Pulling back, the four teens looked distressed at what was happening, but Danny balled his hands into fists and glared ahead, looking upset.

“That does it! I’m going ghost!” he said.

He ran toward the basement stairs and instead of walking down them, he jumped down and his body fluidly transformed into Phantom who flew downward and zoomed toward the controls of the portal. He pressed buttons quickly, clearly knowing what to do to turn the portal back on.

“Can’t catch ghosts anymore, almost hurt my friends… now my parents are arrested because of me?” he muttered to himself.

Lights flickering on in the portal, Danny stared at them for a moment before he stepped inside and immediately set his eyes on the on and off buttons on the wall.

“Danny!” cried his parents. “You don’t know what this is going to do! This might kill you!”

“Wait, whoa, what’s happening?” someone asked in confusion. “What’s he doing?”

“He’s trying to get rid of his ghost powers.”

“But how is walking into a ghost portal supposed to do that? It makes no sense.”

“Heck if I know.”

Valerie stared at the scene playing before her, her mind racing. She wasn’t sure exactly how Danny had ended up as a half-ghost, but she did remember that week in their freshman year, when Danny didn’t show up because they were told he was in an accident involving the new functioning ghost portal the Fentons had in their basement.

Their teachers made it sound like he got a small shock out of it, nothing more. And when he came back he was a little strange, sure, and his behavior was much more nervous and jittery than it was before. Also, if Valerie remembered correctly, Sam and Tucker had stuck to him like glue back then, refusing to leave him alone no matter what. Even Dash felt sorry for him, taking a break from whaling on him for about a week or two.

But maybe it was more than a shock. Maybe Danny’s accident was much more serious than everyone was letting on.

Valerie figured his parents were lied to, too, because as they stared at the scene playing on the screen, they looked alarmed and confused and like they had no idea what Danny was thinking. Which was deserved, seeing as how crazy what he was seemingly trying to do was.

Then again, becoming half-ghost had to be… something.

“This is extremely dangerous, Danny,” said Maddie, her eyes wide open in alarm. “You can’t walk into the portal and activate it with you inside. The electricity alone would kill you on the spot—not to mention the ectoplasm that will course through you once this thing connects to the Ghost Zone—”

“I know,” Danny said simply, looking only slightly paler than he did before.

Next to him, Jazz bit her nail nervously, alternating between watching her brother on screen and the one that was sitting right next to her. Unlike her, though, Sam and Tucker looked like they were slightly frozen in place, staring at the screen with pure fear and apprehension.

If Valerie had to guess, she’d say that when Danny first got his powers, Tucker and Sam were the only ones with him—not Jazz. That would explain their reaction to seeing this. Because if Maddie and Jack were right about the electricity and ectoplasm from the portal… it couldn’t have been pleasant to get these powers in such a way.

“Um…” someone cleared their throat, sounding sheepish. When they spoke up, Valerie was surprised to hear the voice of a little girl speaking. “How did you get your powers?”

Jack gasped. “The shock from the portal,” he said. “You said it wasn’t anything serious, but it activated the portal—”

“—and the button is inside,” Maddie completed, her expression matching her husband’s as she stared at Danny with tears in her violet eyes. “Danny, what happened that day?”

He cringed and sent a look toward Sam and Tucker, who still looked mostly frozen in place. Valerie thought their eyes looked a little distant, like they were living something completely different, seeing a different scene entirely. With her own mind already reaching its limits from all these revelations, Valerie thanked Desiree for not showing the day Danny actually got his powers—especially if it was affecting Danny’s friends that much.

“I may have… walked into the portal to see what it was like inside?” said Danny. Then he hurriedly added, “I mean, you said it wasn’t working, so I figured there was nothing to worry about. But then I accidentally pressed the button and it opened right on top of me.”

“But—but—this should have killed you,” whispered Maddie in horror.

“I mean, it sort of did,” shrugged Danny. “Halfway, at least.”

There were pale and green faces all around the room, Valerie noticed, as people took this in. It was one thing to know that there were ghosts in their town and that one of them was apparently also a living, breathing person some of them knew personally. It was another thing completely to know how said ghost came to be in the first place.

“Danny, stop!” called Jazz as she, Sam and Tucker ran back into the lab, staring at Danny urgently. “This isn’t the way!”

“You’re a hero, Danny. We can talk about this!” added Sam.

Tucker threw his hands up in the air, saying, “Don’t do it, dude—we’ll find something that rhymes with Phantom.”

“Tuck, what are you talking about?” said Danny flatly.

“I don’t know—I haven’t lived through this yet!”

“Sorry, guys,” said Danny gravely before he hesitated for a brief moment, then pressed the activation button.

Light shined brightly in the back of the portal, and then more lights flickered on all around him, surrounding Danny as he looked at them with a mix of wonder and wariness, not moving to try and escape.

And then electricity danced all around him, arcing all over and passing right through his body. Danny screamed in agony, his body convulsing from the power running through it.

Outside, Sam buried her face in her hands and Tucker brought his hands up to rest on her shoulders. Jazz’s eyes bugged out as she covered her mouth with her hand, staring transfixed at what was happening before her right along with Tucker.

People were either frozen in pure shock and alarm, or screaming at the hair-curling cry that came from Danny on the screen. They were either gaping at the scene, unable to look away from what was happening, or they were looking determinedly away, incapable of watching this happen to someone.

Valerie could see Sam pulling her legs onto her seat as she hugged her knees close to her chest and buried her head in them, body shaking. Tucker was one of the people frozen, staring up at the screen with a haunted look on his face, like he was experiencing the worst moment of his life all over again.

Danny’s parents were gawping. They were both crying, the tears on their cheeks visible in the dark room that was illuminated by the bright lights of the activated portal in the video. They looked paler than ever, their bodies trembling as they kept on staring wide-mouthed at their son as all this power passed through him.

Danny himself flinched, but he didn’t look like he was as affected by this as the other people in the theater. He didn’t look happy or content, per-se, but he clearly wasn’t as bothered by this—most likely because he’s already experienced something similar and couldn’t be bothered to react as drastically because, well, he knew what this felt like.

Maybe it would have been different had he actually died completely from it that first time, but then they wouldn’t have been here, watching any of this in the first place. So… it didn’t really matter.

But Gosh, Valerie’s stomach churned and flipped and squirmed at what she was seeing. Even if she did look away from the screen, she wouldn’t have been able to block out the sound of Danny’s agonized scream if she wanted to. It was cutting right through her, tearing her insides relentlessly.

This was what it truly sounded like for a person to scream their lungs out. Danny was literally dying in this, suffering something nobody should ever go through. And it wasn’t even his first time doing it. Maybe it was different for him because this time it was by choice, but all Valerie would remember from this, she knew, was the absolute pain and agony and misery that could be heard in his voice as the portal tried to open around him.

Hands wrapped around Valerie and she startled a little before realizing it was her dad. He looked at the screen, eyes bugging out of their sockets as he seemed to shiver at the unrelenting yell that revibrated all around the room, and Valerie suddenly understood that he was seeking her out to make sure she was okay—to make sure she was safe despite the horrid scene that was playing before them.

Her eyes finally tore away from the screen and she could see Maddie reaching her hand back, flailing wildly with it, until Danny caught it and squeezed reassuringly with a guilty look on his face. His mom wasn’t turning around, apparently unable to look away from the image of her son suffering, but she clearly took a little comfort in knowing he was sitting right behind her, alive and well.

Or, well, half alive.

Eventually, the lights in the portal slowly died down as smoke filled it and spilled out. The scream faded away until it was gone completely. And Danny, with a white streak in his hair but otherwise looking like always—albeit with torn clothes—stumbled weakly out of the portal with a grimace and a few pained grunts.

He managed to slip out of the portal and collapse on the hard floor right before the portal started sizzling and buzzing with energy behind him, utterly ruined. Sam, Tucker and Jazz pulled him away from the portal and to the back of the lab, avoiding the destruction of the portal just in time.

A moment after they got to safety, the machine exploded. The three teens stared at it for a moment before focusing on Danny, who was lying on the floor with his eyes closed.

It was a testimony to how worried Jack and Maddie were about their son that they didn’t even mention the portal exploding as they eyed the screen critically through their tears, holding each other’s hands tightly as they waited with bated breath to see what would happen to Danny after all of this.

“You actually did it,” murmured Sam, her voice muffled by her knees. “Oh, my Gosh, Danny…”

“Hold up,” said Tucker slowly, his voice a little strained. “Does that mean that Vlad’s plan worked? Did he just win?”

Danny scrunched up his nose. “Ugh, I hope not.”

“But if this worked—”

“Maybe we could rebuild the portal and reverse it… again?” suggested Jazz weakly.

The look on Danny’s face was of utter disinterest. “All right, I went through the portal twice already to get my powers,” he said in a clipped voice that let Valerie and everyone else know he wasn’t going to explain this sentence if they asked. “And apparently I’m about to do it again to get rid of them—I know this is already ridiculous, but there’s no chance I’m getting into that thing for the fourth time, okay? Not happening.”

“Maybe one of us could go in instead?” said Tucker uncertainly.

“You can’t,” argued Jazz. “Even if we do build the portal again, it doesn’t mean it’ll work with somebody else’s DNA. What if this only happened to Danny because of something in him that enabled the accident to give him powers instead of finishing him off? What if you or Sam or I step in there and it doesn’t work the same way? We can’t take that chance.”

“Danny just took a chance with the portal,” commented Sam dryly. She sounded less than thrilled about the way things were shaping out to be, and Valerie could see Danny giving her a look, clearly noticing it, too. “He didn’t know for sure it would take his powers away but keep him alive, either. What would we lose by trying?”

“Um, you could die?” said Danny.

Sam pulled her face up and glared at him as she punched him in the shoulder. “Then maybe don’t get rid of your powers, huh? What do you think about that?”

He rubbed his shoulder with a grimace. “I haven’t—I won’t. Jeez, did you forget I’m not the one who chose to do it just then? None of this even happened yet!”

This didn’t seem to cheer Sam up, but she still kept her lips pressed shut, not saying anything more.

When she glanced back, Valerie focused her eyes on Vlad. The man was looking at the scene with a pale face like everyone else—even to him this had to look pretty nasty—but his eyes were twinkling with interest. He was clearly trying to build in his head a different way to achieve the same result—Danny getting rid of his powers one way or the other.

Man, if this thing wasn’t going to reveal Vlad as Plasmius, they would seriously have to look over their shoulders after this wish was over.

Kneeling on the floor next to Danny, Sam anxiously eyed him as she put a hand over his stomach. Next to her, Jazz and Tucker were eyeing Danny warily and worriedly, waiting to see what would happen next.

“Danny,” Sam said in distress, “can you hear me? How do you feel?”

Eyes still closed, Danny’s hand came up to rest over Sam’s. It made the three hold their breath as they focused on Danny’s face a moment before his eyes fluttered open for a moment, locking with Sam’s as he managed a small, weak smile.

“Human,” he muttered, then passed out again.

Despite his claims that he wasn’t planning on going through with anything like this, Valerie could see the curiosity and longing on Danny’s face as he stared down at his hands, his expression slightly sad. Was he imagining feeling this way again—completely human, without a trace of ghost DNA in his body? Did it even feel different when he was human?

She had so many questions about it—about what he, Danielle and Vlad were. There had to be huge differences between them and every other ghost in existence. So many unanswered questions, so much information Valerie could gain simply by talking and observing Danny.

But now wasn’t the time. They were watching this video in a very tense room that was growing more and more anxious as time went on. The enthusiasm people had before, when this whole thing started by showing Phantom fighting Plasmius, was long gone. It was hard to believe the same people were now respectfully keeping quiet, eyeing the ghost-turned-human on the screen as he fainted.

The atmosphere in the room was so heavy and dark that Valerie felt like it was literally weighing her down. She wanted to cut it somehow, but she could also see that this wasn’t the time. Not to mention how even Danny—despite not caring about the portal scene as much as the others—was going through a lot simply by watching a future where he was fully human again.

So she kept her lips pressed tightly together and leaned a little more into her dad’s embrace, basking in its warmth—warmth that she knew from experience Phantom lacked. As Danny Fenton he felt like a normal human being, but maybe… maybe he felt the cold inside of him—something that only he would be aware of.

Something his future self would notice the lack of the moment he stepped out of the portal that fried him.

The scene changed once again. Sam and Tucker were now gone from the basement, leaving only Jazz and Danny down there. Despite his ragged appearance, Danny looked really happy as he looked toward the stairs. Jazz, on the other hand, looked sad.

“I can’t believe you just did that,” she told him, and he turned to look at her, his smile evaporating. “It feels like I lost a good friend; someone I was just starting to get to know.”

Danny frowned at her and threw his arms in the air. “Why is everyone but me bummed about this?” he demanded in frustration. “Danny Phantom’s not needed anymore. From now on, Danny Fenton is just a nice, normal kid from a nice, normal family.” He paused for a moment, then started heading toward the stairs. “Now let’s go get Mom and Dad out of jail.”

“Are you listening to yourself?” Sam said tonelessly.

Danny managed a small chuckle, though he looked slightly uncomfortable. “Y-yeah, I think I get it.”

“Sorry to disappoint, dude, but as long as you’re a Fenton, your life is never going to be normal, no matter how hard you try. At least you can escape some of it when you’re a ghost—or, uh, you could. Before everyone found out who you were.”

“Thanks, Tucker. That’s really helpful,” said Danny dryly.

“I don’t get it!” said Dash loudly from a few rows back. “How can you want to be normal? What kind of person wants to give up superpowers and instead live a normal life? It doesn’t make any sense!”

Danny’s eye twitched when almost half the hall joined in on that exclamation, apparently sharing Dash’s opinion and thinking Danny’s wish to be normal was silly and stupid. And while Valerie knew it was a little hard to understand when you weren’t experiencing it for yourself, she found herself torn between supporting them and siding with Danny.

Turning around to look Dash in the eye—and by that also ignoring the other curious gazes that were trained on him—Danny spoke up, his voice clipped.

“Let me paint a picture for you, Dash. Imagine having a goal in life that you really want to reach, but you need to pass school without failing every subject to achieve it. And then imagine you trying to study for tests and do your homework when every few hours a new ghost shows up to ruin your day, you get beat up, like, half the time, and then you need to also avoid people who want to hunt you down and pin you to an examination table so they can tear you open and study you.

“So you stay up almost every night because you can’t go to sleep when there are ghosts around. And you can’t always get back to your life immediately after a fight because people are chasing you around the streets. And since you’re only a half ghost, and you spend so much time chasing other ghosts away and back to the Ghost Zone that the ghosts hate you, some people hate you, and the people who don’t hate you won’t leave you alone until you turn human again—and then they wonder why you’re always slacking.

“Still want those powers?”

“Not to mention how… as much as we’d love to just call it ‘ghost powers’, Danny got them because he basically died—even if not all the way,” said Tucker. “So he’s partially dead, and he still needs to worry about homework! It should be considered a crime…”

The hall was silent. Valerie could swear she’d hear a pin drop in that tense atmosphere that somehow intensified at the words. It felt like people were too afraid to speak up now, hearing all of this.

Some people in the crowd, she noticed, looked guiltily at each other, meaning they were probably responsible for some of Danny’s grief. Either because they hated Danny Phantom, or because they were his fans that chased him all around Amity Park all the time. Valerie hated those lunatics so much—although now she kind of eased up on that feeling, knowing who these people were worshipping.

“Well…” Mr. Lancer’s voice cut through the silence, drawing the gazes of Danny, Sam, Tucker and Valerie. “I suppose we can work around that…”

Danny blinked, taken aback. “Oh, I didn’t mean—you don’t need to—”

“Thank you, Mr. Lancer,” Maddie cut him off, sending Danny a look that shut him up. She wiped the tears from her cheeks and smiled curtly at the teacher. “We’d love to discuss some things with you after we’re all done here, of course. We’d appreciate it very much.”

Danny sat back in his seat, looking dazed. “What’s going on?”

“I think,” said Jazz with a smile, “people are starting to see things a little more clearly.”

Once more, the scene in the video changed. It showed Sam, Tucker and Danny sitting on a couch in front of the TV, munching on food. While Sam and Tucker looked annoyed and bored, Danny looked unbothered and relaxed, smiling at the news that were playing on the TV.

“And it’s been another busy day for Mayor Masters’ Masters’ Blasters, who are now charging a small fee to cover their growing expenses,” said Lance Thunder as images from the ghost fights played in the background.

“A small fee?” repeated a woman at the front. “Since when is ghost fighting something we pay for? We already have to pay for the damage done to the town—now we need to pay for the ghost fighters?”

“Why, it does cost money, doesn’t it?” said Vlad smoothly. “I’m afraid the weapons and gear cost quite a bit, so if we wish to keep the team going—especially now that we don’t have Danny Phantom to protect the town—we need to pay a little.”

Nobody looked too happy about this, but they didn’t argue. After all, they all probably knew that Vlad was right. While Danny’s been fighting with his powers, occasionally using his parents’ inventions, humans needed actual weapons to fight ghosts, and that cost money.

Valerie had her suit made by a ghost—as annoying as that was—and Vlad’s been helping her (so far), and the Fentons used their own money to fight ghosts because they wanted to. But if Masters’ Blasters were even better than Danny was… well, as much as Valerie hated to admit it, she didn’t think she or the Fentons would be able to beat them in this, meaning they would require the money to keep their little group going.

The screen of the TV switched to show Vlad speaking to the camera in between more clips of ghost fights between the menaces and Masters’ Blasters. And then, of course, it showed the aftermath of the citizens paying the fee.

Sam and Tucker frowned at the screen, but Danny still just looked at it with no worry in sight.

“Yes, quality ghost fighting is getting very expensive these days,” said Vlad slickly. “Time, equipment, storage, it all adds up. And since that cowardly Danny Phantom disappeared—not that he ever was helpful—there’s no one else in town to assist us.”

Danny ground his teeth. “Come on, Desiree—ruin his life, too…” he muttered to himself.

Valerie found herself inwardly wishing the wishing ghost would take down Vlad with this current wish, too. Gosh, she really wanted to see this smug grin being wiped off his face!

The news clip showed the Red Huntress flying after a ghost, only to get knocked out of the air by Masters’ Blasters. Yelping, she landed in the back of a garbage truck, her glider smashing against the ground and breaking.

“Oh, there are certainly a few crack pots out there, who think they have what it takes, but they only get in our way. It seems that when it comes to fighting ghosts, we’re the only game in town. And I do so love games,” Vlad laughed evilly, then quickly regained his composure, his hands holding fistfuls of money. “I-I mean… have a good day.”

Valerie’s mouth fell open as she pulled away from her dad to lean forward and glare at the image of herself up there. It was the first time she appeared in this video, and she kind of wished she never showed up there in the first place. Was Mr. Masters serious? He just decided to throw her aside once he realized she was of no use for him?

Only a few people knew who she was, so nobody paid much attention to the video of the Red Huntress, but Valerie could still feel the concerned gaze of her dad trained on her, since he obviously knew it was her in that red suit. And she could see Danny and the other three glancing at her, too, obviously aware of who she was and what her relation to Vlad was.

“You okay?” asked Danny quietly as he leaned over Jazz.

She growled at the screen. “I hate being used,” she grumbled lowly. “But the thing is that I can’t do anything against Mr. Masters until people realize what he truly is, can I?”

“Yeah, it’s… complicated. I mean, maybe now they’ll believe us if we tell them the truth about him being a halfa because they know it’s an actual thing, but as long as we don’t have proof, people will be able to brush this under the rug if Vlad just doesn’t admit that it’s correct. He can just claim we don’t like him and want to ruin his reputation—which is true, but not helpful.”

“How come you haven’t told your parents about him all this time?” she hissed back.

Danny grimaced. “He threatened to tell them about me in return, and… I wasn’t ready for that, really.”

Valerie held herself back from sending a heated glare over her shoulder toward the mayor. As much as she wanted to show him just how much she didn’t appreciate what he was doing in the near future… she also knew better than to show it right now, in front of so many people who might catch on to the fact that she and Danny hated the guy.

This wasn’t the right time. This wasn’t the way to go about this. Vlad was smart, so they needed to be smarter—somehow.

“We’ll get him, Val,” Danny said confidently, like he could hear her thoughts. Or maybe he was thinking the same thing. “We just need to… figure out how.”

She smiled at him. A part of her was amazed at how well he was taking all of this, considering Desiree made it so that her wish ended up focusing on Danny more than on Vlad’s scheme. But she mostly just appreciated the fact that he wasn’t holding a grudge against her for everything she’s done—including this stupid wish—and instead trying to help her.

“Has anyone ever told you you have a hero complex, Danny?” she said somewhat flatly, her lips quirking up.

He stared at her blankly. “Huh?”

Jazz chuckled and pushed him back to his seat. “We know he has one, Valerie—trust me. Which makes this whole thing more interesting to watch, because I wonder how you’re going to handle watching things from the sidelines without doing anything about it.”

“I seem to be doing fine.”

The three of them glanced over to the screen briefly, where Danny still wore that easy smile, the white streak in his hair standing starkly against the black strands. It made Valerie want to reach over there and ruffle his hair until it was all either black or white—this looked so unnatural on him.

With a shake of her head, Jazz said, “Just you wait, little brother—this peace won’t last for long. It’s just not who you are.”

Danny looked skeptical about it, but he didn’t argue any further.

When the scene switched again, it showed Danny and Sam standing on the steps of a house, the door open behind Danny’s back as he looked down at Sam, a corndog held in his hand. While he looked confused, Sam looked upset and angry.

Throwing her arms in the air, she told him, “You’re not you anymore! You’re just a normal kid—and a selfish one at that.”

Danny flinched at the words and curled into himself in his seat, looking like he wanted to just turn invisible but was too aware of the people around him who were all probably waiting for him to use his powers so they would be able to awe and gawk at how amazing it was.

Next to him, Sam looked conflicted. Probably because she could see how her words were affecting Danny—real-life Danny—yet she still didn’t want to take them back since she possibly agreed with herself, or at least figured her future-self most likely had a good reason to throw this in her friend’s face.

“How am I selfish?” demanded Danny, gesturing wildly with his hands, the corndog still clutched between his fingers. “Because I don’t want to endanger the people I care about the most?”

“Danny, don’t you get it? Your powers gave you a chance to change things. A chance that no one else had. And I was thrilled to be helping you.” Sam’s voice grew quieter as her mood dampened and her anger was replaced with disappointment. She sat down on the lowest step and leaned her head on her hands. “But now you’re just one of the crowd again.”

Hesitating for a moment, Danny stared down at Sam, then moved to sit next to her.

“What’s wrong with that?” he asked.

“Everything!” She looked up and stretched her fingers, as if to emphasize her point. “You got to fight ghosts after school while other kids fought acne.” She glared at him again as he leaned a little back. “And you don’t seem to care about what you gave up!”

Sounding affronted by the accusation, Danny turned to her sharply and said, “I care! It’s just…” he looked sideways, then back at her, his tone slightly more guarded, “I care about you… and my family more.”

“I saw that,” noted Tucker with a smirk. “I saw that!”

“Saw what?”

Valerie glanced sideways at the three friends to find Danny blinking in slight confusion at Tucker and Sam, both of whom seemed to be rolling their eyes at each other, sharing their opinion about Danny. And considering Valerie didn’t even need to know what they were on about, she figured Danny had to be extremely oblivious not to realize what was happening with them.

Honestly, it was a huge surprise to learn that the guy didn’t even know Sam was into him. Valerie was still half convinced Danny was faking it, because how could someone be that clueless? It just wasn’t possible. It was too stupid to be a part of reality. She wanted to believe he was just ignoring it for some reason—the truth that was glaring him in the face—but she had the feeling he really was as dense as he was acting.

It was honestly sad to see that he liked Sam, yet was refusing to actually do anything about it. He even backtracked and added his family to the sentence when it was clear he was only talking about Sam in this near future. What, was he afraid Sam would reject him? Was he avoiding this for some kind of good reason?

No, Valerie refused to believe that. The guy wanted to date her when he knew she was also flying around on a glider in her spare time, trying to find new ways to torment and destroy him. There was no better excuse to stay away from someone, so if he ignored all sound reason with her, he had no reason to avoid going out with Sam.

He was literally just too dense to see that she liked him back—it was almost depressing. Pathetic, maybe.

Either not realizing this moment was actually between Sam and Danny alone or simply deciding to ignore that, Jack turned to look back at Danny, a grin on his face. It drew Danny’s attention away from his two friends before he could ask them what was going on.

“Danny, we appreciate you looking out for all of us, but we can look after ourselves. Even if we end up in a little bit of trouble from time to time because of something you do, we know you never mean to cause us harm—and we can handle it. Can’t we, Mads?”

“Exactly,” the woman agreed, sending Danny a proud grin. “You shouldn’t look after us, sweetie—we’ll be fine. In fact, if those powers help you protect yourself, it would make us feel infinitely better to know that you have them with you.”

“And maybe a weapon or two—it can’t hurt.”

Danny smiled at them both gratefully, though Valerie thought she saw a little bit of doubt in his expression, like he wasn’t all that sure they could protect themselves. Which was… valid, honestly. Not that she was going to say anything…

Turning to look across the street at Masters’ Blasters who stood next to cages of ghosts and demanded money from someone for capturing them, Danny and Sam both looked on with forlorn expressions.

“When you had your powers, I knew that this town was protected from evil. But now… who knows where we’re headed,” Sam said, looking at the exchange. Then she turned to Danny and got to her feet. “I’ll always be your friend, Danny, and I’ll always be there for you. But I can’t live life just sitting on the sidelines. I’m surprised you think you can.”

Danny watched her as she climbed up the stairs and walked inside the house, leaving him alone with the corndog.

“Well, it’s not like he can do anything now,” said Star from her seat next to her parents. She had her arms crossed as she rolled her eyes pointedly. “I mean, his powers are literally gone—he’s not suppressing them. So what exactly is Fenton supposed to do now when ghosts attack?”

“Use his parents’ weapons?” suggested Kwan. “We saw him fight with them that one time, with the cruise that kidnapped out parents, remember? He led us there. It was pretty cool, actually.”

Dash nodded excitedly. “Yeah! I was almost impressed—until he disappeared and left us to handle it all alone—”

“Dash, use your head,” snapped Sam. “Danny disappeared because he came back as Danny Phantom.”

The blond blinked, then his lips parted as the realization hit him. He didn’t say anything else—didn’t bother apologizing, either—but he looked like he was reliving that day all over again, this time with this new bit of information in mind. It was probably the best they could expect from him for now, anyway.

When Valerie checked to see what Danny was thinking about this exchange, though, she found the boy furrowing his brows at the scene on the screen, his hands tapping the armrest of his chair anxiously.

“Hey, what’s up?” Jazz asked him, apparently also noticing his behavior.

“You know it wasn’t meant to hurt you or anything, right?” added Sam, sounding a little unsure—almost apologetic. Though, of course she wasn’t actually going to apologize for something she hasn’t even done—something she probably thought made sense.

As much as Valerie and Sam didn’t see eye to eye most of the time, she had to admit that she would have acted the same way had she been in Sam’s shoes.

Danny shook his head. “It’s not that. So far nothing all that serious has happened in this. I mean, other than the ghost powers and the portal exploding,” he hurriedly said when Tucker and Sam opened their mouths to object. “I just… I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, you know? There has to be something that’s about to happen—something always goes wrong here.”

“Well, we won’t know until it happens—if Desiree would even bother showing us anything,” said Tucker.

Sam nodded. “Yeah, we already know what Vlad’s plan is, don’t we? What’s the point in watching more of this now?”

“Maybe there’s more,” suggested Danny, sounding rather bitter about the idea.

“More than making you get rid of your powers?” said Tucker doubtfully.

“It’s Vlad—he always has complicated plots all planned out.”

“Touché.”

Chapter Text

This time the scene showed the Fentons’ living room, where Jack was sobbing into his hands, Maddie trying to comfort him as he held a picture frame in his hand. On the sofa, Jazz sat and watched them boredly.

Just when Danny walked into the room from the kitchen, looking dejected, Lance Thunder could be heard from the news on the TV playing in the background, and they all turned to look at it curiously.

“We interrupt this program to bring you breaking news from the universal observatory.”

The TV showed two scientists standing in front of a camera, looking distressed. One of them had yellowish complexion and a black, short beard. The second one had a pair of round glasses and gray hair.

“Earlier today our stellar readings indicated that a massive asteroid is hurdling across the solar system,” said the gray-haired man.

“Where its trajectory will send it crashing directly into the Earth,” said the other scientist.

“Oh, look,” said Danny wryly. “There it is—that’s the punch.”

Sam elbowed him to keep him quiet, her wide eyes locked on the scene playing.

Jack and Maddie gaped as they walked closer to the TV, Jazz joining them as she kept her eyes on the screen, face filled with alarm. Danny numbly let his father pull him close, looking too shocked to respond much better.

The guy with the sunglasses continued: “If immediate action is not taken, our entire planet will be completely destroyed.”

“We estimate we have one week before impact.”

“The fate of the human race is at stake. One week—use it wisely.”

The Scene froze again.

People all around the hall tensed at the news in the video. It wasn’t hard to tell that this was taking place in the very near future, meaning… they didn’t have a lot of time before this asteroid ended up moving toward their planet—which was bad.

There were panicked calls from every direction as people took in the information and immediately became frantic and hysteric. Valerie herself felt a pit form in her stomach. They were going to have one week to deal with whatever asteroid this was? One week? This was nuts! The entire world was going to get demolished because of this!

“Holy cow!”

“We’re all going to die!”

“Lord of the Flies—this is crazy!”

“What are we going to do? We have to do something, right? Right?”

“WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!”

A few of the scientists in the room started spitting out ideas in rapid fire, trying to come up with a way to handle the situation somehow. Valerie didn’t know much about dealing with massive asteroids, but she figured they were clutching at straws, desperately attempting to come up with a solution that would save their world.

“This is bigger than just some ghost catastrophe,” moaned Tucker. “We’re dealing with an enormous rock that’s speeding through space toward us. And in this future”—he pointed at the screen—“Danny doesn’t have his powers to try and help.”

“So… we’re dead?” said Sam.

“There has to be a way to blow this thing up before it reaches us,” said Danny with a frown as he looked down at his lap. “If we do that, there’s no asteroid to handle and we’re all set. We just need people to think about it, right?”

Valerie’s head started hurting from all of the panicked shouts all around. Her dad was anxiously looking around, as if searching for a way out of this nightmare that would also save him from this future that was fast approaching. Of course, if there really was an asteroid coming toward the Earth, nothing they did now would prevent it from hurtling toward them.

But they could, hopefully, deal with it before it was too late. Before they ended up with only one week to work with.

It took a while—a lot of crying and chaos and distressed hollers—but eventually people started to calm down. They were stuck in this place for now, after all, and this asteroid wouldn’t be taken care of if they all just remained in this place, unable to leave because they were too scared and frantic to watch the rest of the wish.

The good thing Valerie could think of was that she actually appreciated the head’s up they got from her wish. Maybe Desiree wasn’t trying to help them in any way, but this was still useful information they were being given here.

Mortifying, but helpful.

Changing, the scene revealed the lab again, where Danny was sitting in front of a bunch of monitors that showed a spaceship and an enormous asteroid in space, Jazz leaning over his shoulder to watch what was happening. Next to them sat Maddie, and off to the side was Vlad, who looked less than concerned.

Not too far away, a cameraman was focusing on the monitors and on Lance Thunder, who said, “I’m here ringside, where a privately funded mission to stop the Disasteroid is underway.”

Danny glanced at him along with Jazz, then he turned to glare at his sister. “I can’t believe I’m just sitting here at a computer console when I should be out there stopping this!” he whispered to her, then his eyes narrowed down on Vlad. “And I really can’t believe we have to do this with him!”

“Danny!” berated his parents, though Maddie didn’t seem to have too much heat in her voice.

He ignored them, instead turning to his friends. “The Disasteroid? Seriously?”

“Well, it is a disaster in the form of an asteroid,” said Tucker with a shrug. “I think the name fits.”

“Glad to see I managed to talk some sense into you, though,” said Sam with a smirk. “You wouldn’t have been yourself if you didn’t want to do something against a catastrophe you really can’t stop.”

“Uh, thanks? I think…”

Sam ignored that and instead gestured toward the screen. “Well, it looks like you guys might be trying your idea, right? So if this works, you’d still be helpful—just… not the one in the thick of things like you usually are.”

Leaning toward them, Valerie said in a low voice, “But did you see Mr. Masters? He doesn’t look concerned in the least—it’s like this whole thing is a game to him. Does this mean he knows how to handle the asteroid—the Disasteroid—and doesn’t bother worrying because he can deal it on his own, or… what?”

They shrugged at her, clearly clueless as to what Vlad was planning, just like she was. But it was clear something was going on, because he had no reason to be this confident and sure when everyone else in this scene looked tense and agitated.

For a moment Valerie allowed herself to glance back toward the mayor. He was looking at the scene with the same amount of nonchalance as his future self, which did nothing to ease up her worries. What was he planning? Was he already in on his own plan? Did he have an idea as to how he could stop the Disasteroid?

“Maybe he’s just planning to leave Earth? He is a ghost—it won’t be the end of the world for him,” muttered Danny.

For some reason, Valerie had a hard time imagining Vlad Masters abandoning society—not because of the people that lived on their planet, but because he wouldn’t want to have nothing. Danny’s told her that he’d used his powers to get to where he was today—meaning he cared about his money and the way people viewed him.

There had to be something else…

Jazz pursed her lips. “We never would have been able to get this mission up and running so fast if he hadn’t paid for everything. So at least until the world is saved—chill.”

Approaching Danny, Lance and the camera focused on him, cutting off the short conversation between him and his sister.

“How’s it going, young man?” asked Lance.

Danny blinked at the camera and the microphone that were pointed at him. “Uh, my dad—Jack Fenton—is piloting our new—”

“—my new,” corrected Vlad absently.

Danny clenched his hands. “—Fenton Rocket,” he bit out.

People all around looked between Danny and Vlad, clearly curious to know what was wrong with the two of them, because it was kind of obvious that they weren’t getting along. The most confused one, as far as Valerie could see, was Danny’s dad. The poor man looked between his son and his college friend like he was a lost child in a store.

Vlad just shrugged, as if to say he had no idea what Danny had against him. Danny, on his part, hunched his shoulders and kept his lips sealed, his eyes staring intently up at the screen. Valerie couldn’t read minds, but she could almost hear his thoughts begging Desiree to reveal Vlad’s identity already.

She crossed her fingers in her lap, hoping the ghost would somehow listen to their pleas.

“And is on his way to destroy the asteroid,” finished Danny as he pointed at the monitor that now showed Jack Fenton and the three Masters’ Blasters sitting in the rocket headed toward the Disasteroid.

“He looks very serious about his mission,” commented Lance.

Jack turned to the camera in the rocket, wearing his space suit, and glared at it while showing a packet of astronaut food. “You’d be serious too if you had to eat this freaky astronaut food,” he scowled. “Freeze dried yam smelt surprise. What the heck is that?” he demanded and threw the food on the floor.

“You’re in space, and this is what you’re focusing on?” said Danny in frustration. “Look around—this is so awesome! And if you can’t enjoy it, then at least take pictures for me!”

“Danny, I think he has more pressing matters to handle,” said Jazz.

“Like complaining about astronaut food?” her brother asked flatly.

She bit back a smile. “I suppose that, too.”

Turning to smile fondly at Danny, Angela Foley said, “Oh, that’s right—you want to become an astronaut, don’t you, Danny? This is like a dream come true for you, huh?”

“I mean, if I were actually up there…”

“But if you’re part ghost, can’t you fly up to space without any gear? Ghosts don’t breathe, so…” She blinked. “Wait, do you still breathe when you’re not, um, human?”

It was a good question, actually—which meant that every single person who heard it turned to look at Danny curiously, their eyes boring into him. Valerie felt a pang of guilt when she realized she was one of the people who made her friend hunch in on himself uncomfortably, but she just really wanted to know.

Sure, her head might still explode from the overload of information it was being given, but at least it was the interesting kind of information.

“Oh, uh, I don’t need to breathe…” said Danny hesitantly, his voice trailing off uncertainly.

Sam came to his assistance then. “Danny doesn’t need air as a ghost, but he still breathes—I guess because it’s natural at this point. It’s an instinct. So he won’t die in space or anything.”

People around hummed with interest at this tidbit of information. Some of them sent Danny looks, like they were trying to analyze him with their eyes alone—which neither him nor his friends and sister seemed to appreciate as they glared at everyone until they turned back to the screen.

The scene seemed to speed up—too quickly to see what was going on—and then set back to a normal pace once again once Danny and Vlad were left alone in the lab, all the others gone.

Danny’s head was bowed in defeat as the monitor showed the Disasteroid has progressed past the spaceship, clearly not destroyed. Vlad, on the other hand, moved to stand behind Danny, hands behind his back as he grinned.

People moved uneasily in their seats, confused as to what was happening. Some sent Vlad looks, searching to see if he would know why he looked so happy when the mission clearly didn’t succeed. Others frowned and kept on staring at the video.

Valerie’s leg started bouncing up and down as she tried to understand what was going on. Why was Vlad okay with the mission failing? It was his mission, after all—he paid for it, and sent his team right along with Jack Fenton. So what was the plan here? Was he planning on failing? Did he actually want the Earth to get annihilated? It made no sense…

Danny sighed and turned his body around as he went to leave, too, keeping his eyes on the monitor, as if still refusing to believe there was nothing left to watch. Which meant that he walked right into Vlad, a huff escaping his lips as he took a step back in surprise.

“Oops. Looks like I set the wrong coordinates. Silly me,” said Vlad innocently. Then he smirked at a scowling Danny. “You know how bad I can be with computers.”

Apparently deciding to try and go away and ignore Vlad, Danny moved around him, hands in his pockets.

“Looks like your father has failed once again,” continued Vlad, which stopped Danny in his tracks, his eyebrows shooting up before he frowned. “And at a time when the world needs a hero the most.”

“Vladdie?” said Jack hesitantly.

“What’s going on?”

“Is he taunting him?”

“Why is the mayor acting like that?”

“What is with Mr. Masters and Danny Fenton? Seriously.”

“Mr. Masters, what are you doing?”

“What’s he talking about?”

“No, I mean it—what’s the deal with those two?”

Danny’s expression darkened as he balled his hands into fists, his eyes glowing a bright shade of green that was definitely different than the usual blue Valerie was used to seeing there. Of course, she was used to this toxic-green color from Phantom, so it wasn’t that surprising to see it now.

Honestly, she was just glad this glare wasn’t directed at her right now. She knew what Danny was like when he was angry, but she rarely saw Danny Phantom when he truly was upset with her—more than just frustrated, that is. She didn’t feel like discovering what it was like to be at the end of his loathing and hatred.

Rounding on Vlad, Danny glared at him. “At least he tried, Vlad. What have you done except send others to do your work for you?”

Apparently, Jack was so confused, he didn’t even bother trying to defend Vlad. Valerie could tell that Danny noticed it, but he didn’t say anything—honestly, he was probably relieved.

Vlad pointed accusingly at Danny. “And where are you, Danny Phantom?”

The video stopped playing again, as if sensing people had things to say.

People gasped and turned to gape at Vlad. From the corner of her eye, Valerie could see Danny grinning smugly and leaning back in his seat, clearly ready to see what would happen next—both in the theater room and in the video.

“Vlad… knew?” said Maddie numbly. She looked back at Danny. “Danny, Vlad knew you are Danny Phantom? How—how long? Did you tell him? Did he find out by accident?”

Jack still looked like he wasn’t sure what to think anymore, his eyes darting from the screen to his old pal, filled with mixed emotions that made Valerie feel really bad for the guy. It wasn’t his fault Vlad’s been manipulating everyone around him for who knows how long.

With a shrug, Danny said, “Since the first time we met. At his place. He kind of… accidentally found out.”

Maddie turned to look at Vlad. “And why haven’t you said anything? To Jack? To me?”

“Better question—if you knew all along Fenton was Phantom, why have you been at odds with Phantom this entire time? It’s a literal child—not even an adult,” someone noted. “I figured it was because you don’t like ghosts in general, but if you knew…”

“Mr. Mayor, what’s going on?”

“Why haven’t you told anyone that Danny Phantom was Danny Fenton?”

“Or at least that Danny Phantom wasn’t a bad ghost—or even a whole ghost. This could have been some pretty useful information.”

More questions were thrown in his face, but Valerie could see that Vlad wasn’t moving to answer any of them, instead staying impassive as he looked at the screen thoughtfully, probably wondering what other secrets of his would be revealed—especially since he was now in a room with only Danny in it in the video, meaning he’s going to be more reckless with what he has to say.

For a moment his eyes darted over to Danny, who met his gaze with an arched eyebrow and a challenging smirk, eagerly awaiting Vlad’s response, too.

“Why, I respected Daniel’s wishes to remain anonymous,” said Vlad eventually, his voice making the voices around trail off as everyone listened to what he had to say. “Clearly, he cared deeply about people not finding out his secret. And, alas, I couldn’t tell anyone that Danny Phantom was only a half-ghost, since who would have believed such an absurd thing without any evidence—which I doubt the boy would have supplied me with. Aren’t I right, my dear boy?”

Danny did not look impressed.

“You needed evidence that half-ghosts exist? Oh, gosh, Vlad… I’m sure you would’ve been able to come up with something on the spot.”

They glared at each other—though Vlad’s annoyance was concealed behind an expression of indifference that probably fooled enough people to pass as genuine, but not Valerie. Not now that she was looking for it—for his real self, behind the masks and the act.

And then the video continued, and everyone turned back to it reluctantly.

Looking smug, Vlad said, “It looks like my plan to shame you into hiding was even more effective than I could have hoped.”

They both leaned toward each other, growling, before Danny raised his fist to try and punch Vlad, only for the man to smirk and lean out of the way, which sent Danny tumbling to the floor with the force of his attack.

“Wait, you really don’t like Phantom. And Phantom—I mean Fenton—I mean Danny doesn’t like you either,” a woman called. “So what in the world is going on here? There has to be a story behind this whole thing! He just tried to hit you!”

Vlad kept his lips firmly sealed, his arms crossed over his chest as he kept his gaze locked on the screen.

“Danny?” Jack said unsurely. “Danny, what’s going on? What’s wrong with you and Vlad?”

A shadow crossed Danny’s face before he shook his head and kept quiet, apparently taking a page from Vlad and allowing the video to play undisturbed instead of saying anything more. His father seemed to take it as bad news, though, because his shoulders hunched and he looked more serious than Valerie has ever seen him before.

Still on the floor, Danny raised his head a little to watch as Shelly Makamoto appeared on the news along with a small clip of Saturn that played in the corner of the screen.

“I’m just getting word that scientists now know that the Disasteroid originated from the rings of Saturn two weeks ago,” said the news reporter, the clip next to her showing the asteroid as it started shooting away from the planet it was rotating around before.

“Saturn?” said Danny, then he hefted himself a little upward, still staring at the screen as he frowned. “Your satellite exploded! That’s what moved the asteroid. You’re the one who caused this catastrophe!” he turned to glare up at Vlad from the floor.

Still smirking, a black ring appeared at Vlad’s waist and split into two. They travelled up and down his body, transforming him the same way Danny’s rings did, only Vlad Masters turned to Vlad Plasmius.

People gasped.

“Vlad’s… a ghost?” breathed Maddie in alarm.

Next to her, her husband blinked at the screen dumbly. “I did not see that coming.”

“Wait, that’s the Wisconsin Ghost!” someone called in alarm. “I thought it—I mean, he was evil!”

Valerie found herself smiling despite the chaos all around her. People were screaming at Vlad or scrambling to take seats further away from him. It was almost amusing to see the way they tried to get away from Vlad after realizing he was ghost, but tried to get close to Danny once they found out he was Danny Phantom.

Goes to show how much good Danny managed to do this entire time—and how horrible Plasmius’s been this entire time. Not to mention how the man had twenty years to ruin his ghost side’s reputation, while Danny only had just about two years to work with so far.

But anyway, Valerie was just glad the secret was out. She leaned back in her seat and sighed in relief at the fact that she and Danny didn’t actually have to work hard to prove to people that the mayor was in fact a ghost, after all. Maybe Desiree was listening to their internal wishes. Or maybe this was already a part of this wish in the first place and the ghost just decided to reveal everything she could by showing this to all of Amity Park.

Either way, Valerie couldn’t be happier about this specific secret coming out into the open.

“So he’s the one who’s responsible for the Disasteroid?”

“There are more people who are also ghosts? How many are there?”

“But Phantom and the Wisconsin Ghost always fight each other—what does that mean about Mr. Masters, then?”

Vlad scrunched up his nose. “Well, this is slightly inconvenient,” he commented dryly, not reacting to the accusations and the way people moved away from him in the least. Instead, he set his eyes on Danny. “I suppose you’re enjoying this, little badger.”

Smirking, Danny leaned back with his hands behind his head. “Oh, yes. This is like music to my ears. I’d love to tell you that it was nice while it lasted but, er, it really wasn’t.”

“I knew Vlad had some… issues,” said Maddie as she fanned her face, “but I never thought he was actually an evil ghost!” She frowned. “And you’ve been going after our boy!”

Somehow, Danny’s smirk widened a little as he closed his eyes, basking in the scene transpiring around him.

“No, of course not, Maddie,” said Vlad, suddenly looking much more serious. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“No, he just locked me in a spectral energy neutralizer, overshadowed Dad—which, admittedly, I did, too—”

“Danny!” cried his parents, looking scandalized.

He ignored them and went on, raising a finger for every point he brought up. “He weaponized one of my friends so they’d fight me; tried to get Jazz to fight me; he kidnapped Mom and I, and then tried to hit on her and get me to once against renounce Dad—which is just never going to happen; he set ghost animals after me after shortcutting my powers; he’s the reason the Ghost King attacked Amity Park in the first place; he tried to clone me—and then melt down the one successful result in order to study its remains.”

Danny stopped to breathe, then smiled innocently at his parents. “Should I go on?” he asked. “I can talk about that time he’d sent a bunch of ghost hunters to hunt me—along with the two of you. Oh, yeah, and he overshadowed all of the voters so that he’d get elected—”

“Daniel, stop,” Vlad snapped.

But it was already too late. Everyone was taking in this dump of information slowly but surely, digesting it all at their own pace as they turned to give Vlad disgusted looks, Danny still sitting back and enjoying it all from his perch. Tucker and Sam looked like they were going to laugh.

“That’s—that’s—” Maddie tried to speak, but it was all too much, obviously.

Valerie herself, despite knowing that Vlad’s been using her and being a generally awful person slash ghost, was appalled by it all. The list seemed to go on and on, and she was sure Danny could think of more things to say about Vlad that would make people hate him even more, but he didn’t need to—this was already more than enough.

She couldn’t believe this thing’s been going right under everyone’s noses, and nobody was paying enough attention to notice it—except for Jazz, Tucker and Sam. It was hard to believe that this entire time, Danny and Vlad have been fighting each other, while also keeping up appearances.

The memory of their strange behavior around the time Vlad got elected mayor was still fresh enough in her mind. She remembered the invisible wall that showed Danny when he was in the shower. She also remembered that before that, Vlad Masters was on the news because the same thing had happened to him—meaning they must have done it to each other without anyone realizing.

And then… then Vlad got elected and made life hell for all kids around town, and he told everyone Danny was supporting him because he knew it would make the kids in school turn on Danny, too.

There was that whole thing with Vlad trying to shoot the Wisconsin Ghost and somehow hurting Danny instead, though Valerie was a little confused as to what exactly happened back then. Clearly Vlad had made duplicates of himself, but how did it end with Danny being hurt instead of Plasmius?

Probably some ghost thing she hasn’t thought of yet—whatever.

The point was, this whole thing was disgusting and she couldn’t believe the mayor of their city was actually one of the worst ghosts around Amity Park. Clearly, she wasn’t the only one thinking that way, because the people in the movie theater were very obviously displeased and angry with Vlad right now.

But the most surprising thing, in Valerie’s opinion, was that out of all the calls and protests that were thrown in Vlad’s way after all of this, nothing came from Jack Fenton. The man didn’t look like he was holding back because he didn’t want to trash-talk his college buddy—in fact, he looked like he was more upset with the man than he’s ever been with anyone else—but he was keeping quiet.

His silence was louder than anything he could have possibly said.

“Danny,” whispered Sam when everyone began to calm down a little, “aren’t you worried Vlad might try to attack someone in here? Like, say, you?”

Danny shook his head. “I tried it earlier—none of my offensive powers work right now. I can turn invisible and fly. I can turn intangible, too. But I can’t use ectoblasts or overshadow anyone. So I’m hoping the same stands for Vlad.”

“That’s good to know,” muttered Valerie.

He sent her a look, then smiled. “Hey, at least now everyone knows, right?”

“God, Danny, he’s done a lot.”

The boy shrugged. “Yeah, well… he’s been helpful sometimes—not often enough to be worth the trouble, though.”

“Definitely not,” agreed Tucker.

“Absolutely not. Never worth it,” said Sam.

Jazz pulled a face. “Agreed.”

Once transformed, Plasmius reached down and pulled Danny up by the collar of his shirt, making him yelp before he glared up at Vlad.

“Defeating you was just the first act of my little show. Get ready for act two!”

And he threw Danny toward the portal, the boy screaming as he sailed though the room before smashing into the ruins of the portal and landing on the ground, where he groaned, unconscious.

“Danny!”

“My baby!”

“Son!”

“What’d you do that for?” a few people asked, sneering at Vlad. “He doesn’t have his powers anymore—he’s just a normal kid. What was the point here?”

She wasn’t sure, but Valerie thought Vlad’s eyes flashed a bright red for a moment. She wanted to dismiss it as nothing, but then she noticed people flinching away from him even more than before and she figured that actually happened—like Danny’s eyes flashed green when he was angry.

Composing himself, Vlad said, “Perhaps my evil ghost half is too much for my human half to handle. It’s trying to take over—and unfortunately it hates Phantom.”

Several people took in this bit of information and nodded slowly, apparently believing Vlad. Jack and Maddie Fenton were not included in this group, though, as evident from their matching glares. Although, still, Jack was glaring down at his hands and Maddie was glaring straight at Vlad.

“If the ghost half really was evil, Danny’s other half would’ve been, too. I think it’s just who you are, Vlad, and don’t try and pin this on ghosts! Not when we have our own expert to turn to.”

And, shockingly, she pointed at Danny rather than Jack or herself. Even Danny looked slightly taken aback by the insinuation that he knew more about ghosts than the self-proclaimed ghost-experts did. Of course, his mom was probably right, but it had to be weird for Danny to realize his mom was acknowledging the fact that he understood ghosts better than she did after studying them for years.

Vlad’s eye twitched. “Come now, Maddie, I wouldn’t exactly call Daniel an ‘expert’. He has only been a part of this world for less than two years, after all.”

“Two wonderful years,” Maddie told Danny with a proud glint in her eye.

The boy blinked at her, then smiled. “T-thanks, Mom.”

The scene once again switched. This time it showed the front of City Hall, where a crowd gathered, filled with news reporters from different countries and a lot of the residents of Amity Park. Behind a stand, Vlad stood grinning, Masters’ Blasters right behind him, like body guards.

In the crowd Danny, Jazz, Sam and Tucker stood, eyeing the podium warily. Not too far away from them were Maddie and Jack—though Jack was supporting more than a few bandages and a cast for his hand; his eye was dark, like he was punched recently.

“Citizens of the Earth,” greeted Vlad into his microphone. “I have news that will impact the entire world. Though every attempt at destroying the Disasteroid has failed, I come to you today offering an alternative solution. One I think you will find most surprising.”

And he jumped onto the stand, and then upward, transforming into Plasmius.

The crowd gasped. Danny gawped and said, “No!” Blinking in surprise, Jack blankly said, “I did not see that coming.”

Cameras moved to follow the now floating, leering ghost.

“Oh, well,” Danny sighed. “This can’t be good.”

This time, nobody gasped along with the crowd in the video because they already knew Vlad’s secret. Still, people looked at each other uneasily, probably realizing that for the man to reveal himself to the world like that, there had to be something going on—most likely something they won’t like, considering Plasmius’s less than stellar track record.

“But what’s his plan?” hissed Sam. “What’s the point in letting everyone know right before we all die? It’s not like he’ll be able to do anything with this information.”

“Do you think he actually has a way of getting rid of the asteroid?” asked Jazz nervously, biting her fingernail as she eyed the scene warily. “Because if so… I mean, the world will have to take a solution—any solution.”

Danny’s jaw set. “He could ask for anything in return,” he summarized. “If this works, Vlad gets to have anything he wants.”

“This had better not work, then,” said Tucker.

“But then we’ll be left with a humongous asteroid on its way to destroy all of us,” Valerie reminded him. She grimaced. “Is it better to live in a world where Vlad is extremely powerful, or not live at all?”

“Well—” started Jazz.

“Not the time for philosophical questions, Jazz,” Danny said irritably. “We need to come up with our own solution—something foolproof that won’t fail—and hope that whatever Vlad has planned won’t succeed. Otherwise…” He blinked, then shook his head. “Well, let’s not think about that.”

“Anybody has an idea?” asked Tucker.

They all kept depressingly quiet.

Duplicating himself, three Plasmiuses shot pink ecto-rays at the stand, knocking Masters’ Blasters off their feet before they could shoot him. Then the duplicates turned back into one.

“Yes, though I use my human half to walk among you,” said Vlad to the floored crowd below him, “it is obvious that I am a far superior creature.”

Danny snorted, though he did try to muffle it with his hand.

“Who are you?” asked Shelly Makamoto, holding up her microphone.

“Though the world has come to know me as Vlas Masters, billionaire mayor of Amity Park, I prefer you call me by my chosen slightly more evil name… Vlad Plasmius.” Ignoring the reactions he got, Vlad continued confidently. “I have a proposition to make. The nations of the world must agree unanimously to pay me five hundred billion dollars and make me absolute ruler. In return, I shall use my ghost powers—”

A reporter cut him off, asking, “To destroy the Disasteroid?”

Vlad blinked his blood-red eyes, his smirk growing. “No, to turn it intangible.”

Smack!

A few people turned to see what the source of the sound was and found Danny sitting hunched in his seat, the palm of his hand pressed against his forehead that he just smacked in frustration.

“Intangible,” he muttered. “Of course—I should have thought of that! That way the Earth won’t get destroyed and we don’t have to destroy the Disasteroid.”

“I mean, maybe we won’t have to use any method at all,” said Sam. “If we keep Plasmius away from Saturn and that stupid satellite of his, none of this will happen in the first place and we’ll have nothing to worry about other than normal ghost attacks.”

Tucker shook his head. “With our track record, I don’t think that’s going to be this easy.”

“Tuck’s right. We’ll probably find ourself facing some other huge catastrophe if it won’t be the Disasteroid.”

“Cheerful,” noted Valerie.

Sam looked at her and rolled her eyes, as if sharing her pain with Valerie. Then she caught herself and quickly looked away, annoyance swimming in her eyes.

“Absolute ruler?” someone scoffed. “We’ll just ask Phantom to do it!”

“Uh, Danny Phantom doesn’t exist anymore in this future, genius,” another person grumbled.

A third one added, “Yeah, we’re stuck with only this psycho to work with…”

Danny winced and lowered his gaze to his feet, evidently feeling bad for apparently giving up his powers in the future and leaving the world to rely on Vlad Plasmius of all people—ghosts? Whatever.

Valerie felt more than a little disgusted when she realized the world actually had no choice—they were going to agree to the man’s—ghost’s—terms whether they liked it or not.

She shuddered.

“It’s your choice, world,” said Vlad with a knowing grin. “Be destroyed or be saved. Oh, and ruled by me. I eagerly await your decision.”

Then he vanished into thin air, his laughter echoing in his wake.

Jazz looked back at Danny. “What happens now?”

“Looks like we either change the name of the Earth to Vladsylvania, or I somehow figure a way out of this mess…” muttered Danny quietly, looking down as he seemed to try and come up with a plan.

“It’s slightly concerning that the fate of the Earth is in the hands of a literal teenager,” commented Mr. Falluca. “Not that I’m saying you’re not capable, Mr. Fenton—”

“No, no,” said Danny dismissively, “you’re absolutely right—this is messed up on so many levels.”

Vlad, on his part, decided to drop the act, apparently. “Please, Daniel, what could you possibly do to stop this, especially when you don’t have your ghost powers to assist you?” he sneered.

“Don’t speak to him, you evil ghost scum!” snapped Maddie.

When Valerie turned to look at him, she found Danny biting his lip worriedly. He looked around desperately, clearly trying to come up with a plan on the spot so that he’d have something to throw back in Vlad’s face, but his silence meant that he couldn’t think of anything.

Which wasn’t surprising—not when nobody else seemed to be able to find an answer to this future predicament—but it still seemed to make Danny’s spirits dampen. After all, what could they do? Vlad was going to rule their world and they were powerless to stop it.

It looked like he finally managed to find the foolproof plan he’s been looking for.

“We’ll figure something out,” said Sam confidently. “We still have time, remember? And thanks to this wish, we’ll be a little more prepared than we were before.”

“Yeah, there are a few good things about this whole thing,” said Valerie airily, the words almost physically painful to utter out—she did not want to admit that she was glad she’d made the wish, but…

Danny sighed. “There has to be something we haven’t thought of yet… there just has to be…”

The scene changed to show space—again. Plasmius was flying up to a huge asteroid that glowed green, the Fenton Rocket flying nearby.

With a smirk, the ghost put his hands on the surface of the Disasteroid and—

“Arg! No, no, no!” he screamed as the contact with the surface of the rock seemed to shock him. He held his hand up, where an advanced-looking watch rested on his wrist, and said, “What is the meaning of this?”

A virtual Maddie Fenton appeared there, glitching a little as she smiled up at him with her mask and goggles pulled over her head and her hands held behind her back.

Maddie looked like she wanted to throw up as she flinched away from the screen, glancing back at Jazz and Danny. While Jazz looked at the projection of her mother with wide eyes, Danny only looked like he wanted to groan and shudder a little—yet he was clearly unsurprised.

Then the woman turned to look at her husband, whose darkening expression spoke volumes as he looked away from the hologram of his wife on the screen, looking appalled by what he was seeing. His expression soothed a little, though, when Maddie put a comforting hand on his forearm, squeezing softly as she offered him a smile.

“Don’t pay this any mind, Jack, you hear me?” she said. “I love you so much, honey.”

“And I love you, too,” replied Jack, speaking for the first time in a while. Then he threw a look over to Vlad, glaring daggers at the man, before he turned to smile at Danny and Jazz. “And you two—I am proud to call you my kids.”

“We haven’t done anything yet,” protested Danny.

Jack waved his hand. “You’re trying—that’s already good enough.” He narrowed his eyes at Vlad again. “And you’ve had to put up with him this entire time without telling anyone. That had to be unpleasant.”

“That’s one way to describe it,” muttered Danny.

“Thanks, Dad. We love you, too.”

“Asteroid composed entirely of unique anti-ghost element ecto-ranium,” said the hologram. Then she glitched to a new pose. “Ecto-ranium,” she said again, and then the same thing happened one more time before she faded away.

Vlad lowered his hand and stared at the Earth in despair. “Ecto-ranium? Then I can never touch it. No ghost can. That means… the Earth is doomed. And even if it wasn’t, I could never go back. I’ve revealed… my true self. I’ll be forever hunted.”

Danny snorted again. “Dude, you are being so dramatic,” he snickered. “And you’re just talking to yourself in space.”

“Will you take this more seriously!” snapped Vlad. “If this asteroid really cannot be touched by ghosts, it means that even with your powers, you wouldn’t have been able to save the Earth. Everyone on it is doomed, no matter what you come up with, Daniel.”

Opening his mouth to retort, Danny froze. For a second he just looked back at Vlad, unblinking, and then he sapped his head back around to stare at the distant image of Earth hovering in space, straight in the Disasteroid’s path. His mouth opened a little wider as the cogs in his brain seemed to turn.

“What is it?” asked Sam. “I know this look, Danny—you have an idea.”

“I…” Danny closed his mouth, then went silent for another moment longer. “This is crazy.”

Someone closer to the front called, “Don’t know if you’ve noticed, kid, but we’re open for any suggestion right now—crazy or not.”

Before Danny could speak, the video continued playing.

The lab of the Fentons showed up again, where Tucker, Sam and Jazz watched the monitors to see what was going on with the mission. By their grim expressions, it was easy to tell that they knew of the complications that were just discovered.

“What are we gonna do?” asked Tucker.

Walking down the steps and entering the lab, Danny said, “What if we didn’t make the asteroid intangible?”

The three turned to look at him blankly.

“Then it would obliterate the Earth,” answered Tucker, unimpressed.

“Not if we made the Earth intangible.”

People gasped at the suggestion and looked at each other, murmuring between themselves as they pondered this new idea proposed to them. Some looked aghast. Some looked unconvinced. But most just looked like they were willing to try anything at this point—as long as it would save their world…

Valerie frowned. “You don’t even have your powers,” she commented. “And even with them, you’d still need help if you wanted to turn the entire planet intangible. How in the world are you going to accomplish that?”

“Uh… talk to the ghosts?” said Danny.

She set her mouth in a straight line. “Danny, they’re ghosts. They don’t care about our world.”

“But they care about their own world,” said Danny.

“And that has… nothing to do with this.”

Tucker shook his head. “The Ghost Zone is the flip side of our world. If our world gets destroyed, so does theirs. And if they don’t want to be destroyed right along with us, they should be willing to help.”

“Exactly.”

Valerie wasn’t sure she was convinced yet, but considering she didn’t have a better plan right now—or anyone else, for that matter—she decided they would just have to go with this one. They didn’t have any other choice.

“The whole Earth? Intangible?” scoffed Sam. “Are you kidding?”

“Yeah, you’d need, like, a bazillion ghosts to do that,” agreed Tucker.

With a determined grin, Danny pulled out a familiar scroll—the infi-map from the beginning. “Behold… the addresses of a bazillion ghosts,” he said proudly.

“Danny, that’s genius!” called Sam as she wrapped her arms around him.

Danny chuckled lightly and awkwardly returned her hug. “Oh, uh, thanks, Sam.”

While murmurs started spreading around the room as people curiously mulled over this plan between themselves, Valerie focused on the map Danny was brandishing in the video. It was glowing a little, and it was taken from some… frozen guy, according to Plasmius—she couldn’t remember his actual name.

The infi-map. Seriously, what was this thing? Was it a map of the Ghost Zone? Was it that simple? It didn’t seem to be just that, since Vlad wouldn’t have been that taken with it had it only showed him his way around that other world. No, there had to be more to it than that. Heck, it had even summoned those doors to space when Vlad had opened it, so there was bound to be a story behind it all.

Working with what she had, though, Valerie could assume that Danny was already familiar with the map. He didn’t look confused now, and he wouldn’t look confused in this future, meaning he’s either heard of it, or he’s encountered it. For some reason, she felt like the second option was the one to go with—maybe because his life was just crazy enough to believe it.

But this map already belonged to someone—someone Danny was supposed to give the map back to, yet hasn’t bothered to. Or maybe he was going to, only to remember his powers were now gone and he’s made a stupid mistake by first getting rid of them and then remembering he had a map to return to some ghost on the other side of the portal.

Well, whatever the reasoning behind it all was, it worked out for the best. If this thing could lead them to the ghosts they needed in order to turn the Earth intangible and avoid this tragedy, Valerie would take it. Even if she was still doubtful about the ghosts’ willingness to cooperate.

Chapter Text

Chapter Four: A New Plan!

The scene skipped. It showed the Ghost Zone now, where the Specter Speeder was flying ahead, with Sam navigating it while sitting next to Danny; Jazz and Tucker remained standing behind them.

“I-I don’t believe—” said Jazz in astonishment as she looked about with a wonderous smile.

“Believe it, Jazz,” said Danny. “Welcome to the Ghost Zone. Sort of a Ghosts ‘R’ Us.”

Someone laughed. Another one chuckled.

Most people were just staring at the Ghost Zone with the same sort of eagerness mixed with trepidation that was written all over Jazz’s face in the video. After all, they have never seen the Ghost Zone, despite knowing that the Fentons had a working portal that led to this other, unknown world in their basement.

Valerie herself was a tiny bit less impressed than everyone else was since she’s already been there—because of that hunter ghost, Skulker. But now, without any danger around, she found herself taking it all in a little more calmly, her mind trying to process everything quickly.

“Wow,” said Maddie from the next row. “Danny, you’ve been to the Ghost Zone? Oh, what am I saying—of course you’ve been to the Ghost Zone! I have so many questions…”

“Samantha, you are not going to the Ghost Zone!” screeched Jeremy Manson. “Just like you are not going to space, you hear me? This is not going to happen!”

Sam groaned. “We’re trying to save the world and that’s what you’re worried about? It wouldn’t even be my first time! I’ve been there already at least three times! And as you can see, I’m perfectly fine!”

Jack and Maddie turned to face her and Tucker eagerly.

“You’ve both been there with Danny?” asked Maddie.

“Could you breathe? We always assumed the air would be toxic from all the ectoplasm, but I assume you didn’t bother taking anything with you so you wouldn’t run out of oxygen.”

“And we’d ask you, sweetie,” his mom told Danny, “but since we aren’t sure whether you’ll be fine in that atmosphere because of your other half, this is just a little more reliable.”

Danny brushed it off easily, not seeming offended in the least.

“You’ve been to the Ghost Zone?” demanded Angela Foley as she looked at Tucker critically. “Why? Were you attacked? Could you actually breathe in there?”

Tucker tried to get away from his mother’s probing hands when she reached out to try and touch his face, as if to make sure he was still as human as he could possibly be.

“Yes, we could breathe there,” confirmed Tucker as he tried to shoo away his mom. “And we were fine. We even found out we can phase through stuff in that place ‘cause we’re human.”

“You’re not going there again!” yelled Pamela Manson at her daughter. “This is extremely dangerous, and I don’t care if you can pass through solid matter in there. It’s an unexplored world—even the Fentons haven’t tested it out yet. I won’t have you going in and out of it all the time, Sammy-kins!”

Groaning, Sam rolled her eyes. “How come you get the parents that are excited about all of this?” she grumbled to Danny.

Danny shrugged. “Oh, I just got the insane family. You got the, uh, overbearing one.”

“Try ‘controlling’,” she muttered.

Raising his hands placatingly, Tucker’s dad said, “Well, we can’t change what happens in the video or what’s already taken place,” he said calmly. “We should finish this thing and then talk to the kids about flying off to strange dimensions without any adult supervision.”

“To be fair,” said Jazz, “they had Danny with them before. And considering he’s a ghost, I think he’s a better safety net than any adult would have been in the Ghost Zone seeing as it’s a world filled with stuff he knows the most about.”

Angela inclined her head. “We’ll talk about it more later,” she promised.

Maddie squeezed the hands of Jazz and Danny, her eyes gleaming. “And you’ll tell us everything, right? Oh, I want to know everything you’ve learned, honey—this could help our study immensely.”

“As long as you’re not dissecting ghosts or going through the portal to attack all of them in their own turf—sure,” said Danny with a shrug.

“Of course not!” exclaimed Jack, his enthusiasm returning to him for the first time since that whole mess with Vlad started. “We’ll listen to everything you have to say, son—unless there’s fudge. I can’t promise to pay attention when there’s fudge.”

Valerie bit her lip hesitantly, then leaned a little forward to look past Jazz. “Mind if I joined this little study session?” she asked.

Danny looked at her in surprise for less than a second—Sam watched her with a slightly displeased expression from behind Danny—then smiled. “Sure, why not. You did want all the information I had about ghosts and the Ghost Zone.”

It sent a shiver through Valerie, the way he brought that up so casually, not sounding resentful in the least despite how deserving it would have been. She felt like scum for hurting him in the first place—not only because it was Danny, but because she knew Phantom was half alive.

Would she ever be able to look back on that without shuddering at her own indifference to his pain? She didn’t think so. Even if Danny wasn’t holding a grudge against her for any of this, it still felt horrible to think that she was prepared to torture him for information he was now willing to give for free.

“But the shelves are empty,” commented Tucker as they looked around. “Where the heck is everybody?”

He was right—all of the shelves floating around were deserted, no ghosts inhabiting them as usual. But as they moved forward, they could see ghosts flying away, scattering quickly as if they were running away from something.

A white ray hit the Specter Speeder and they all yelled as the vehicle flipped backward before landing in an energy cage that closed around it, sealing them in.

“What’s going on?” cried Jazz.

“Tucker, my baby!”

“Samantha!”

“Danny, Jazz!”

“Uh-oh,” said Danny.

“Maybe it’s Walker?” suggested Sam.

For some reason, Danny didn’t look like he thought that was it. “It could be anyone,” he said tensely. “There are plenty of ghosts with a grudge against me—I bet they’d all be happy to lock me in… a… cage…”

He trailed off, staring at the screen with a twitching eye.

Jazz glanced at him. “Danny?”

Narrowing his eyes at the video, Danny crossed his arms over his chest, looking wary and upset. “I bet it’s Skulker. Locking people in cages—seems like something he’d do.”

“But this is so not the time for us to get captured by him,” moaned Sam.

“And Danny doesn’t have his powers—so we’re pretty much goners, aren’t we?” added Tucker unhelpfully.

“Maybe we can talk some sense into him?” tried Jazz weakly. She shrugged at the unimpressed looks she was getting from the others. “Hey, it’s not like we have any better ideas. Why did we not take any weapons with us to the Ghost Zone? Seems kind of stupid.”

Valerie internally agreed with that—they should have taken a few weapons with them. And it wasn’t like they didn’t have access to them, seeing as Jazz and Danny were the children of two mad scientists that were obsessed with ghosts. They could have picked anything, and it looked like they brought nothing.

Seriously, what was even the plan here?

“Foolish of you to come here in your human form, ghost child,” said Skulker, who flew closer to the cage, hands on his hips as he glared down at the trapped humans. “Seeking refuge in the Ghost Zone like all the others?”

“Oh, look,” said Danny flatly, “I was right.”

“What’s he talking about—refuge?” said Sam. “And what others?”

Valerie pursed her lips. “Well, if the ghosts don’t know that the destruction of our world would ultimately erase theirs too, then maybe they’re getting back to the Ghost Zone from our world in order to save themselves.”

Sinking down in his seat, Danny rubbed his head a little. “I’m already getting a headache from all of this.”

“What others?” said Danny in confusion.

“All these ghosts!” Skulker gestured behind him to the sea of ghosts floating around, watching what was happening. “They returned here because you humans put your world in danger. Now the Ghost Zone is bursting at the seams!”

Tucker’s voice was a little strained when he said, “But it’s the flip side of our world. If the Earth gets destroyed, the Ghost Zone goes, too.”

Not listening to this, Skulker pressed a button on his belt that made the box around the Specter Speeder emit some kind of sound that made the humans inside grit their teeth in pain. His eyes closed, Danny reached out and pressed a button in front of him that sent an antenna signal that cancelled out the transmission of the cage, making it dissolve into nothing.

“This isn’t going very well,” commented someone.

“That’s an understatement.”

A man two rows behind Valerie clapped his hands and said, “Okay, another plan—we need another plan. This one is clearly not going to work if we need so many ghosts to help us. Would have been more useful had you not pissed off every single ghost that lives in the Ghost Zone, kid.”

Danny huffed and turned to look at the guy. “I’m sorry—next time I’ll let them all roam free in the city, okay?”

“Or, in Skulker’s case, you’ll let him hunt you down and hang your pelt on his wall,” said Tucker cheerfully.

People scrunched up their noses at that, looking disgusted. Danny looked mostly like he was just used to the threat and could not be bothered to really take it seriously at this point. Honestly, Valerie couldn’t even fault him for this. Hearing the same kinds of threats from ghosts tended to just make it all less worrying—especially when they never succeeded in going through with their plans.

“He wants to do what?” screeched Danny’s mom.

“Just let him try,” growled Jack loudly. “Jack Fenton will teach him not to mess with the Fentons!”

Danny’s lips quirked upward for a moment. “Mom, Dad, relax. It’s just Skulker. He can actually be kind of okay when he’s not obsessed with trying to drag me back to his island. Most ghosts are, actually.”

“Oh, yeah, you’ve worked with them before,” remembered Sam.

“Sometimes it feels like it’s more of a game to them,” said Tucker thoughtfully. “Who knows, maybe they’re just bored after years of being dead and trapped in the Ghost Zone, and now they have playdates with Danny.”

“Please never call it that.”

The moment they were free, Sam smashed her leg against the accelerator and they flew right past the ghosts that soon gave chase, following them determinedly.

Glancing back at them all, Danny frowned and looked at the others. “You guys get into the escape pod.”

Tucker and Jazz listened instantly, running back to the pod.

“But, Danny…” Sam said unsurely.

For a brief moment she just looked at Danny’s face, seemingly taking in his unwavering expression. Then she got up and ran back to join the others, leaving Danny to take control of the vehicle. When he glanced back and saw that they were all safely inside the pod, its door now closing, he pressed the eject button and sent them flying out of the vehicle.

A moment later the pod faded away, disappearing, and the ghosts chasing Danny moved right past it without hesitation. The moment they were far enough ahead, the pod turned visible once more.

“What are you going to do? Hit them with your incredible human-rays?” demanded Sam. “You’re not a ghost anymore—they’ll just attack you and you won’t have any way to retaliate.”

“I don’t think I thought this far ahead,” said Danny somewhat sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. “I just wanted you guys to be out of danger, and this seemed like the right thing to do.” He blinked. “I think. I’m not sure—haven’t lived through it yet, remember?”

She groaned. “Why the heck did I leave you alone in there?”

Jazz looked a little dazed. “Why did I listen to you? You’re my little brother—I’m supposed to protect you.”

“I’m sure everything will be fine,” said Maddie calmly, though she had a death grip on Jack’s arm.

Was exposing Vlad even worth all this tension? Valerie wasn’t sure, but it wasn’t like she could make this thing stop. Desiree wasn’t around, and Valerie didn’t think she’d really cancel the wish if they asked nicely. Not that anyone would—they all wanted to know how this thing would get resolved, after all, and for that they needed the video to keep on playing.

Danny flew in the Specter Speeder quickly, but a gasp left him a moment before he smashed right into a ghost monster that roared down at him, stopping him in place. When he turned his head to the side, he saw Skulker and the other ghosts stopping right there, scowling at him.

“It’s not enough you destroy your own world, now you have to destroy ours, too?” accused Skulker.

“Wait!” called Danny when Skulker activated a gun on his wrist, taking aim. “You don’t unders—”

“Fire!” commanded the ghost.

Skulker was the first to fire his gun, and a moment later the rest of the ghosts sent ecto-rays toward the Specter Speeder. The glass shattered and exposed Danny, who screamed as the rest of the vehicle exploded around him, leaving him to float alone in the middle of the powerful assault.

“Danny!”

“DANNY!”

“No!”

“Fenton!”

“Phantom!”

“Holy mother of—!”

Valerie’s hands were pressed to her mouth as she stared in horror at the scene. She couldn’t move. It felt like watching what happened with the Fenton Portal earlier, when he got rid of his powers. Only this time all that was happening was that Danny was being attacked by every single ghost around—and he couldn’t fight back or protect himself.

Her father’s arm wrapped around her again, seeking out her warmth to make sure Valerie was okay. And she was—physically. Mentally? She felt like she was way past the point of simply being wasted. She felt drained and weary and like her mind was slowly turning to mush the longer she watched this thing, the more she heard and learned.

But seriously, watching this—hearing Danny’s agonized scream all over again? It was horrible. And this time they didn’t know what would happen. Sure, earlier he could have died, too, but Danny’s confidence that he would be fine reassured Valerie enough to trust his idea to work.

This was different. This wasn’t a familiar portal opening on top of him—this was him suffering under the assault of all these ghosts who all fired at him at once. Danny Phantom would have probably been able to fight back or at least avoid this somehow. He’s been through enough—Valerie had faith that he would have been able to get out of this mess.

But Danny Fenton was just a human kid with no weapons, no powers, no way to defend himself.

And ectoplasm—as much as it didn’t bother him when he was a ghost—was harmful for humans. Especially when it was this much of it tearing right into him. Valerie didn’t need to see the devastated looks on the Fentons’ faces to know that they knew this much ectoplasm would kill Danny. It was almost common knowledge in Amity Park at this point.

She looked around, tearing her eyes away from the scene to see something else—anything else. She felt a little dazed as she watched Jazz’s pale face, her hand hovering over her mouth as she shook her head. Sam was crying, her hands pressed against her eyes to block out the screen. Tucker looked mostly frozen into place, his eyes wide open and his mouth gaping.

Danny’s parents were trembling. Valerie couldn’t see their faces, but she could tell by their hunched postures that they were already mourning their son. They must have looked really upset, because Pamela Manson put a comforting hand on Maddie’s shoulder, for once looking sympathetic as her husband held her hand, looking utterly shaken.

Heck, when Valerie glanced to the back, she saw that even Vlad looked like it somewhat pained him to see what was happening to Danny on the screen. And considering how unsympathetic a person he could be, that meant he apparently did have a heart somewhere. Too bad it wasn’t good enough to make up for everything he’s done.

Then her eyes fell on Danny. The boy blinked up at the screen with his lips pressed tightly and his brows furrowed. At first glance, he didn’t appear to be as alarmed and distraught as everyone else was by the video, but then Valerie looked down and saw his fingers curling around the armrest tightly, his knuckles turning white.

She remembered how weird it felt to watch herself getting thrown out of the air earlier in the video. But it had to be so much worse to see this happening. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what was going through Danny’s head right now, watching his future self get blasted relentlessly by all these ghosts.

Taking in a deep breath, she forced herself to look back at the screen and ignore the choked and alarmed cries of the people all around the theater.

“Wait, what’s happening!” someone called, pointing at the screen.

The ghosts finally stopped their attack and the bright, green light of the ectoplasm dissipated to show Danny floating there, his eyes closed and his limbs limp. And then a familiar ring of light appeared at his waist and travelled up and down his body, leaving Danny Phantom in its wake.

Looking up, he glared at all the ghosts, who now looked worried and slightly terrified.

“Wait, what?”

“I don’t understand…”

“My ghost boy is okay! I knew it!”

“But I thought he turned human again. How is this possible?”

“Who cares? He’s alive!”

“Unless he’s just a full ghost now…”

More voices hushed that last comment, people clearly not wanting to believe that Danny Phantom was all that was left of the boy they discovered was actually supposed to be alive and not only dead.

“I-I don’t get it,” muttered Danny. “How is this possible?”

His parents gaped at the screen for a moment longer before Maddie turned to look at him, tears of relief slipping down her cheeks as she smiled at him with such gratefulness filling her eyes, it almost knocked Valerie off her seat. She was relieved, too, of course, but it had to be different for a mother to see this scene than a friend.

“Unless you didn’t get rid of the ghost DNA in the first place,” she said slowly, her voice a little shaky. “What if all you did was suppress the ghost part of you, Danny? Then the exposure to this amount of ectoplasm all at once would—theoretically—trigger it to come back out.”

Sam peeked through her fingers, saw Dany Phantom on the screen, and heaved a deep sigh of relief before turning to cling to Danny in a tight hug that Tucker and Jazz joined in on quickly. Maddie and Jack clearly wanted to hug their son, too, but since they couldn’t from their place, they settled for watching him with fond smiles and holding out their hands for him to grab and squeeze a little.

Valerie herself felt like her body was melting. She could breathe freely again, knowing that Danny would be okay. Sure, he could have died, but he didn’t. She hated the fact that this even happened to him—plenty of times, apparently—but as long as he didn’t end up a whole ghost or just a smear on the sidewalk, she would be okay.

“Guys, you’re crushing me, and I can’t breathe!” protested Danny after a moment, his voice coming out muffled from between the bodies that squeezed him.

“Shut up, you don’t even need to breathe,” chided Sam, her voice a little wet. Still, she pulled away—just a tad—and glared at Danny. “You are not allowed out of my sight anymore—every time we leave you alone, you do something reckless and stupid!”

Tucker pulled away and righted his glasses on his nose. “Technically, every time he nearly died, we were also there,” he said.

“I don’t care! I’d rather be there than learn about it afterward!”

“But it would be nice if you stopped nearly dying in general, Danny.”

“Yeah, uh, sorry,” said Danny awkwardly, then he squirmed until Jazz let him go, too. “I’ll do my best? I guess? You know, I don’t exactly want these things to happen.”

Jazz wiped a tear from her cheek, then smiled at Danny and ruffled his hair—to his clear annoyance.

“I’m glad you’re okay, little brother,” she said. “It would have been really depressing to see you die in the near future.” She lowered her voice a little and added, “I don’t think Mom and Dad would have been able to live with themselves if something happened to you without them even knowing the truth.”

He grimaced at that, his expression obvious enough to reveal that he agreed with that assessment. Also, Valerie noticed a flash of guilt cross his face, like he felt bad for keeping such a huge thing from his parents this entire time. Not only was it a big part of his life, but it was also a very dangerous part of it that he could have died from a long time ago.

Jazz was right—their parents would have been devastated had anything happened to Danny without their knowledge. Of course, they would have cared had it happened to Jazz, too, but she was less prone to finding herself in lethal situations, as far as Valerie could recall.

When they all settled down slowly, the entire hall getting quieter as they got over the panic and the overwhelming relief, Valerie turned to look at the screen, but she still noticed the way Sam was refusing to let go of Danny’s hand from the corner of her eye.

Her lips tugged up discreetly and she tried not to be too obvious about noticing this—it wasn’t really any of her business… even if everyone seemed to be aware of Sam’s crush on Danny but the boy in question.

“You just made a big mistake,” said Danny Phantom coldly, his fists held before him as he scowled at the ghosts. “Well, gang, there’s good news and bad news. Good news, my powers are back. Bad news… my powers are back!”

He took in a deep breath, as if preparing for something—

The only warning they got was the way Danny suddenly straightened up in his seat and brought his hands up to the sides of his head as he yelled, “Cover your ears!”

The only ones who managed to do it in time were Sam and Tucker, though.

Phantom released the breath he took in the form of a loud, torturous wail that knocked the ghosts back immediately, throwing them far, far away.

People flinched, grimaced, winced and some even fell off their seats at the loud sound coming from the video. It sounded like an army of agonized souls, all overlapping each other, moaning in misery as they were released. It made the hairs on the back of Valerie’s head stand on end as she quickly pressed her hands to her ears, trying to block the sound out.

It cracked open her chest and squeezed her heart tightly. It made her skin crawl and her insides flip upside down unpleasantly. She felt like she was going to pass out if this continued any longer, because it was just so devastating and horrible—like someone suffering a fate worse than death, only there were thousands of people there and they were all being tortured.

She wanted to crawl under her seat and stay there until the ringing voices left her in peace. She wanted to cry along with the souls that pierced her ears and crawled around her brain. She wanted to just stop existing, to die, to quit being there altogether so that she won’t have to hear this.

Everything fell silent.

Valerie’s ears were still ringing, but she couldn’t hear the terrible, horrible wail any longer, which was good. Good, good, good. She did not want to experience that ever again. Whatever this power was, Danny clearly hasn’t been using it against humans, because she didn’t even know he was capable of doing so.

It was a relief to know that he’s been holding back this entire time when facing her and any other human that wanted to have him destroyed, but it also made her aware of just how horrible everything would have been for them had Danny Phantom really been an evil ghost. They wouldn’t have stood a chance against him if he chose to fight them—not when he was that powerful.

“W-what in the w-world was that?” someone asked shakily.

“WHAT?” another person answered, rubbing her ears pitifully.

In his place, Danny cringed. “Oops.”

Sam shuddered and lowered her hands at long last, looking shaken to her core like the rest of them. “Well, this was… unpleasant.”

“Unpleasant?” echoed Tucker weakly. “Sure, we can call it that. Or just say it was dreadful. Was it that bad last time you used it, too? I don’t remember…”

Danny shrugged. “Don’t know. I don’t exactly record myself when I do it, and it feels different when it comes from me. If it didn’t, I would have been affected, too, which would have rendered this power kind of useless.”

He shook his head a little, as if to try and get the residue ringing in his ears to stop—Valerie knew she could still hear it, although it was most likely just her brain clinging to that horrid sound.

“I-I’ve never heard of a ghost that can do anything like it,” muttered Jack. “Maddie?”

“Neither have I,” said the woman. She grimaced, then turned to Danny. “How did you learn to do that?”

“Uh… there was this whole mess with future evil me—”

“WHAT?”

“—and I was left stranded in the Ghost Zone before a bunch of ghosts found me and started beating me up for stuff I haven’t even done yet, and I couldn’t fight back ‘cause my hands were tied. But then I just screamed at them to get away and… that came out.” Danny smiled sheepishly. “Trust me, it surprised me as much as it surprised future me.”

Valerie furrowed her eyebrows. “Future you?” she repeated slowly. She wasn’t sure, but she thought her voice came out louder than usual.

Blue eyes focused on her, somehow darker than before. “Trust me, Val, you do not want to know. He was terrible. He completely demolished Amity Park ten years from now, so I trapped him in a thermos and left it with a ghost in the Ghost Zone, where it’ll hopefully never be touched again.”

She blinked at him. “You have a future evil self?”

“Hey, that was not Danny,” protested Sam furiously, her gaze sweeping over all of the worried and cautious looks that were suddenly thrown their way after hearing about this. “It was a version of him that’s been through… a lot. And he didn’t have his human half anymore. It was this combination of Danny Phantom and Vlad Plasmius that will never get back here.”

Danny flinched and sagged in his seat, looking almost haunted as he stared ahead blankly.

“No, I didn’t mean to insinuate—” Valerie tried to say. She shook her head and looked at Danny with a small, pained smile. “Of course you’re not evil, Danny. I know that. I just… this is a lot to take in all at once—I’m kind of losing it a bit.”

He offered her a matching weak smile. “Trust me, I know the feeling.”

From the back, Valerie thought she heard Vlad’s voice grumbling about how much he hated this power. Come to think of it, he probably would have used it long ago if he could, meaning Vlad didn’t have this ability that, as far as Valerie could tell, only Danny seemed to possess.

They were really lucky it was someone like Danny that could control such a powerful and horrible attack.

The scene changed. City Hall was in the center of the screen again, but this time the crowd was gathered around to see Danny Phantom, Tucker, Sam and Jazz standing and looking at everyone.

“Is it just me, or does this make it extremely obvious who Danny is?” said Star. “I mean, we’re looking at his two best friends and his sister—he’s the only one missing.”

Maddie groaned. “How did we not put this together ages ago? It’s so painfully obvious now…”

“You thought I was alive,” noted Danny. “Why would you ever entertain the idea of me being a ghost, too?”

“Also, it’s blissful ignorance,” added Jazz. “You don’t want to look at a ghost and recognize your son in it, because you both hate ghosts and would be devastated if you found out your son was dead to an extent. So your brains refused to lean toward the truth, and instead pretended not to see the similarities and the clues along the way.”

This didn’t seem to cheer Jack and Maddie up, but they didn’t say anything as they shook their heads at their own past blindness. Valerie had to admit she felt kind of foolish now, too, seeing as how Danny’s secret was hidden so precariously this entire time. Seriously, the longer she thought about it, the stupider she felt.

Danny Fenton. Danny Phantom. It couldn’t get more obvious than that. He wasn’t even hiding it—he was going around with a pun for a name!

Tucker, stationed in front of a PC and showing a presentation on a screen behind him, said, “The new plan is very simple. With a strong enough ghostly power source and a big enough transfer device, we can send the ghost intangibility across the entire planet. This way the Disasteroid will pass harmlessly through.”

Danny leaned toward the microphone and looked desperately at the crowd. “That’s the plan. Who’s with us?”

Surprisingly, it was Jack Fenton who started clapping first, shortly followed by his wife and various other people. Soon enough, though, everyone was cheering at the new idea presented to them, making Danny sigh in relief.

“This is surreal,” commented Danny. “I’m still not really used to people liking me.”

“Well, get used to it—you’re about to save the world,” said Jazz with a proud grin. She elbowed Danny in the side, making him yelp in indignation. “I’m proud to be your sister, Danny.”

“Jeez, we haven’t even made it work yet,” grumbled Danny as he rubbed his side. “We still don’t have the ghosts needed to even make this thing useful. What are we gonna do? Trap them all and carry them through the portal against their will? For some reason, I don’t see this happening.”

Tucker scrunched his nose. “Maybe you can talk to them again?” he suggested. “I mean, now that you have your powers again, I’m sure they’ll be more willing to listen than they were before. Now you can beat them back if they decide to throw the first punch!”

“We’re trying to work with them, Tuck. I get the feeling that punching them won’t really convince them they should help.”

“Hey, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”

Maurice chimed in then, saying, “I’m sure it’ll be okay. We don’t seem to have anything to lose, anyway—might as well give it a shot, even if we still don’t have the power source behind the plan.”

“Yeah! Let’s do this!”

“Just tell us what to do, we’ll do it.”

“The world will have to help. It’s not like they have anything better to try, right?”

“It’s going to work—I can feel it!”

“Better than turning into Vladsylvania…” muttered someone.

Another person snorted.

Vlad’s eyes flashed red as he crossed his arms over his chest, huffing indignantly.

The clip switched to show Sam, Jazz and Danny standing together in what seemed to be a frozen wasteland. Sam was staring up at the contraptions that people seemed to be working on, clearly made for the new plan.

She and Jazz were wearing coats, hats and mittens to shield themselves from the unbearable cold, but Danny didn’t seem to be bothered by it in the least, standing there casually in his hazmat suit.

“Not bad, huh?” said Sam with a smile; then she turned to look at Danny worriedly. “Now all we need is a massive ghost power source. You sure you don’t want us to go with you?”

“I’m sure. I can move faster on my own.” Then Danny turned to look at his sister. “By the way, where do Mom and Dad think Danny Fenton is right now anyway?”

Jazz smirked. “With them,” she said smugly. “I redressed the Tuckbot 9000 to look and act like you. They’ll never know the difference.”

“What? Of course we’d notice it if our son was a robot!” objected Maddie furiously.

“Absolutely! Nothing gets past Jack Fenton!”

Danny and Jazz glanced at each other, seemingly agreeing that they didn’t think their mom and dad were right, yet they both chose to keep quiet about it. Valerie wasn’t sure how dense they thought their parents were for them to trust that a robot would be able to fool them, but if this plan really worked… it was just plain sad.

Of course, with everything that was going on in this future, maybe their parents were just overworked and too stressed to notice that something was wrong with their son. It could be excused… a little bit, at least.

Unlike the hurt parents, Sam and Tucker rounded on Danny with suspicious and annoyed expressions. “You kept them?” they demanded.

“No! I mean, technically, yes,” fumbled Danny. “I mean, we don’t use them anymore—they’re just stashed in the garage, okay? They’re collecting dust along with everything else my parents decided to keep. And hey, apparently they’re being used when necessary—which is a good thing, guys!”

Sam narrowed her eyes at him. “Danny, I swear to God, you had better not be found with a robot that’s dressed like me ever again. I might kill you—for real.”

His lips wobbled as he seemed to hold back a laugh. “I don’t need them, I have you two. Learned my lesson and all that, remember? They’re just robots and I’ll never use them to replace you guys ever again.”

There was a story there that intrigued Valerie—and a few other people, if the looks the three were getting were anything to go by—but she kept silent and didn’t ask. This sounded like something she might hear about some other time. Now… now wasn’t the time to get into this when they were about to see if the plan would work or not.

Pulling out the infi-map, Danny studied it quickly. “Gotta go. According to the map, a portal is gonna open up over the pole any minute now.”

He was tackled into a hug by Jazz, who pulled away after a moment, smiling at him with glassy eyes.

“See ya back here soon, little brother. And thanks,” she said.

Danny returned her smile as she walked past him. He stared at her back for a moment, then turned to Sam, who took a step forward to stand in front of him. Without saying a word, she grabbed his hand and put something in his palm. When he looked down, there was a golden ring with a cyan gemstone staring back at him.

“It’s the ring you were gonna give Valerie,” said Sam.

“What?” said Valerie blankly.

“Why?” moaned Danny.

Jazz narrowed her eyes at the video, looking perplexed. “Is this… a class ring?” she asked in confusion.

Next to Sam, Tucker looked like he was having the time of his life, rolling with laughter at the awkwardness that seemed to descend upon his friends. Sam pulled her hand away from Danny’s, her eyes wide open as she stared at the video in distress.

Still, Valerie didn’t miss the way the girl’s hand reached into her pocket, as if to make sure something was there and not inexplicably missing. If she had to guess, she’d say Sam was carrying the class ring with her even now—and she looked relieved at finding it tucker safely in her pocket.

But seriously, what was going on? She remembered her break up with Danny. She knew he’d had something to tell her, but she went first and told him they couldn’t be more than friends because of how worried she was that he might get hurt by her ghost hunting career—something she knew he must have known about and most likely found extremely ironic and annoying.

And then she’d joked about how he was going to give her a lame class ring, and… and…

Was he seriously going to give her one? She knew he liked her, and she liked him, too, but it all ended so abruptly… maybe he was planning on giving her this ring. Or maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he had it, but he wasn’t actually going to give it to her…

There was laughter coming from different areas of the room as people found this a little embarrassing for Danny. Apparently the fact that he was trying to save them all in the future wasn’t going to prevent them all from laughing at him if they were given the chance.

“See?” said Danny’s dad pompously. “I told you to give it to Sam.”

“What?” Sam said perplexedly.

Danny tugged at his hair. “I hate this stupid wish.”

“You were gonna give me a ring?” said Valerie dumbly. She bit the inside of her cheek and squirmed a little in her seat. “Right before I broke up with you, right?”

He pointed at Jack Fenton. “It was his idea,” he said defensively. “He gave it to me!”

Jazz joined in on Tucker’s laughter, her shoulders shaking as she tried not to be too loud and obvious as she snickered at her brother’s expense. Because even though this had something to do with Valerie—and with Sam, apparently—this was embarrassing for Danny above everyone else.

Cheeks burning, Danny covered his face with both hands. “Can we please move on now?”

Valerie exchanged a look with Sam. Despite them not seeing eye to eye more often than not—because of Danny, of course—she could tell that Sam and she both wanted to talk more about this, even though she was also certain that Sam already knew more than Valerie did—especially if she knew and had the ring this entire time.

Still, they both seemed to understand this was going to have to wait. Danny was right about one thing—this wish was the reason this was all being revealed like that, in front of so many people he either didn’t like or didn’t even know. Personally, Valerie didn’t want to talk about any of this in front of so many unfamiliar faces. This was supposed to be between Danny and her, alone.

“You asked me to hold it, remember?” continued Sam. Then she flipped the ring upside down, and the inscription inside that spelled her name was visible. “Something tells me it was really meant for me.”

“Gee, I wonder what that something is,” snorted a little girl.

Wait, Danny was going to give Valerie a ring with Sam’s name on it? She wanted to be upset with him for even thinking that was a good idea in the first place, but then she thought about the fact that this came from his dad, who said he’d wanted Danny to give it to Sam. So maybe it wasn’t Danny’s fault—maybe his dad was the one who’d engraved Sam’s name on the metal.

But if Danny knew about that…

No, it didn’t matter. What mattered was that she and Danny weren’t together. Sam and Danny, on the other hand, were clearly going to start dating sometime. They were either going to go out at some point after realizing they were both stupidly in love with each other, or Tucker was going to bash their heads together out of frustration to knock some sense into them—whichever came first.

And if Tucker wouldn’t do it, Valerie would.

“Uh…” mumbled Danny, peeking at the screen through his fingers before he pulled his hands down in defeat, his shoulders slumping. “Thanks, Dad. Not awkward at all.”

Valerie smirked a little when she noticed that he and Sam were avoiding looking at each other, both of them determinedly looking ahead while keeping their eyes from straying in each other’s directions.

“Take it with you, but promise to bring it back,” continued Sam. She reached out and closed Danny’s fingers around the ring. “If you promise, then… then I know I’ll see you again.”

Looking down at his closed fist, Danny seemed to hesitate for a moment, before looking back at Sam. “I-if we make it through this—”

“When we make it through this.”

“Right,” he chuckled faintly. “When we make it through this, I have a few things I need to talk to you about.”

“Wait, this is happening!” exclaimed Tucker, suddenly sitting forward in his seat, a shit-eating grin on his face. “This is really, actually happening!”

“Tucker!” protested Sam and Danny at once. Then they blinked, glanced at each other, and quickly averted their eyes.

“Don’t Tucker me! I’ve been sitting in the middle of this thing for way too long—it’s time this finally came out and happened already so I’d be able to properly be the third-wheel I’ve been preparing myself to be for ages now. Everyone else knows about it—only you two are taking forever to actually talk things out!”

They looked at each other again. Valerie couldn’t see Danny’s expression because now his back was to her, but Sam’s wariness melted away after a moment to reveal the kind of smile Valerie only ever saw on her face when it was directed at Danny. And she could guess that Danny was smiling right back at Sam, thinking whatever it was he’s been thinking for ages now when it came to his best friend.

“Still would’ve been better without an audience,” noted Danny.

Sam huffed. “You’d better get used to it, you know, seeing as everyone now knows who you are. Blending into the shadows won’t work anymore.”

“No, but turning invisible will,” he replied cheekily.

They sent a look around, at all the eyes that were now trained on them, watching eagerly with way too much interest. Seriously, Valerie understood why Danny and Sam’s friends and families were watching closely—maybe some of the kids from school, too—but everyone else was just sticking their noses in something that had nothing to do with them.

Looking back at Sam, his shoulders stiffer than before with all the eyes on them, Danny lowered his voice and said, “So… talk later?”

“Talk later,” agreed Sam. “Although, if that wasn’t already obvious to you, we might have a problem with finding privacy.”

He chuckled nervously.

A moment before Valerie focused back on the video, she could see from the corner of her eye the way Danny and Sam held hands again, both of them clearly fighting back wide smiles.

“I think I’d be willing to listen,” said Sam with an earnest smile. She lowered her head then to look at her feet. “And no matter how this thing ends, this whole ride we’ve been on together, I wouldn’t change it for the world.” She met his eyes and grabbed both his hands. “Not one bit.”

“Me neither.” He grabbed her by the shoulders when she closed her eyes. “I—”

He shut up and let Sam go in surprise when she leaned and kissed him on the cheek, not meeting his eyes even after she already pulled back. A moment passed before he put a finger under her chin to guide her eyes to look back at him, then he kissed her.

Sam’s eyes grew wide, her face flushing brightly right along with Danny’s as people awed and cooed at the video. A few kids yelled about how gross it was, but most people leaned more toward the “Oh, my Gosh, this is so cute! They’re so adorable and awkward!” kind of reaction.

There were a few disappointed wails from girls around the room—and a boy or two—that seemingly realized Danny Phantom was not available. Valerie was less than surprised to recognize one of said voices as Paolina’s.

“This is mortifying,” whispered Danny.

Sam nodded. “Heck yeah.” Then she smiled at him. “At least it’s not fake for a change, right?”

He grinned back.

Next to them, Tucker sagged in his seat, looking relieved—like a burden’s been lifted off his shoulders. It was probably a dramatic response to the moment in the video, but Valerie could honestly relate. With how much these two have been dancing around each other, pining with literal hearts in their eyes, it was nice to know they would solve it all soon enough.

Better late than never, right?

Considering she wasn’t even as close to the two of them as Tucker was, she shuddered to think what he’s been forced to endure because of their reluctance to just work things out without driving people crazy. A small part of her pitied the boy. A much bigger part was just glad she wasn’t the third-wheel of those two.

No, she was one of the bumps in the road, huh? Was it really better?

She did like Danny, after all. He was a nice guy once they got past the part where they wanted to constantly strangle each other. She could see herself actually agreeing to date him. And maybe things would have worked out really well between them—maybe they would’ve made it together, happy with what they had.

But, in retrospect, Valerie was glad they never went any further with their relationship. She knew about Sam. And maybe she would have realized Danny liked Sam too at some point. And then… it would have made her constantly wonder whether she was Danny’s second choice or not. It would have driven her crazy to know that there was someone else Danny might have ended up with.

No, she was glad they were friends now. She didn’t really need more than that.

Chapter Text

The scene cut to a different one, showing Danny in the Ghost Zone, floating in the middle of billions of ghosts and looking absolutely stunned and alarmed. In the distance, a jet was flying erratically toward a swirling portal out of the Ghost Zone.

“We warned you once, ghost brat,” said Skulker menacingly.

Danny drifted back. “Wait, let me explain!” he called, then escaped the hold of two ghosts that tried to keep him in place. “Our worlds are linked.” He evaded Johnny 13 and Kitty. “If mine goes, yours goes, too! I have a plan!”

Apparently not listening, Skulker shot him straight into the hands of Vortex, who held him up with one hand, then used the other to electrocute Danny, who screamed before he dropped down, hugging his middle with both arms as he glared up at the ghosts.

“I have a feeling this isn’t going to work,” said a guy at the front.

“Yeah?” someone else retorted. “What gave you that impression?”

“This is a disaster!”

“Danny!” a few people called—Valerie included.

It felt like mockery, to electrocute him when that was the reason he turned into a half-ghost in the first place. Right? He got electrocuted by the portal, and the ectoplasm made it so that he didn’t die properly. It was a mess, but the main thing that had hurt him back then was the electricity, from what she understood. So for a ghost to use it again him…

Her stomach churned at the realization that she’d done the same thing to Danny when she had him at her mercy. Had someone tried to hurt her with the very thing that’d killed her, she would have been livid. But of course Danny just took it. Maybe the thought never even crossed his mind, that it was so incredibly wrong of them.

She glanced around and noticed people watching the scene warily, with pained expressions. Parents were covering their young kids’ eyes to prevent them from seeing this; the kids from their school looked horrified—especially Dash and Kwan.

But it was more than that. There was guilt written across the faces of the people in the room. Guilt, because they were watching as a teenager set out to save them—save the whole world—by facing a bunch of ghosts that couldn’t stand him, knowing it was the only chance they had. Because they were watching a kid that was fighting all of this and taking that much abuse for their sake.

And it hurt.

“Look, I know you hate my world and wouldn’t lift a finger to help it,” yelled Danny, looking around as the ghosts closed in on him slowly, “but I thought you might care about saving your own!”

“Come on, guys…” muttered Danny under his breath. “Don’t prove me wrong here…”

Jazz put a comforting hand on his shoulder. She looked like she didn’t care what they were seeing—she trusted Danny to know how the ghosts would react to what he had to say. On his other side, Tucker and Sam quietly urged the ghosts to listen, too.

Crossing her fingers again, Valerie found herself hoping that the ghosts would disprove her beliefs and actually come to their aid. Maybe she didn’t like ghosts, but if a half-ghost thought they might have more to them than Valerie wanted to believe, then… maybe he was right.

Maybe.

The scene switched to show people gathered together in a command room, cheering at the sight of the jet flying out of a portal—and then they gasped in dread when it steered out of course and crashed into an icy mountain.

“Danny!” gasped Jazz.

“No!” Sam ran up to the window to stare at the crashed jet with wide, teary eyes. “He… he can’t be!”

“Sorry,” mumbled Danny awkwardly.

“We know you’re okay,” said Maddie, though she sounded a little strained, anyway. Maybe she was trying to convince herself. “You weren’t in that jet.”

Sam shook her head. “Let’s just hope the ghosts let you go,” she said tersely.

Valerie found herself tapping her foot on the floor once again, anxiously waiting to see what would happen next. She wasn’t sure what to expect anymore. In the video, they were all sure that Danny just died from the crash—or maybe that he’d died in the Ghost Zone already—but the people in the movie theater knew better.

He still had a chance. He was getting beat up by all the ghosts in the Ghost Zone, sure, but he was still alive and conscious and hopefully inspiring enough to get the ghosts to help him with his plan.

“Come on, Danny,” Valerie found herself hissing under her breath, leaning into her dad’s side. “Let this work, please…”

“It’s coming!” called Tucker in alarm after looking at one of the machines next to him.

People tensed all around, huddling together as they seemed to realize this was it—the end was coming, and they couldn’t prevent it, after all. They all looked up to the sky when the Disasteroid became visible, hurdling toward them at extreme speed.

Jack Fenton put his arms around Maddie and Jazz, pulling them in close. Off to the side stood a robot with a black wig and one of Danny’s shirts.

“Listen,” said Jack, “I just want you all to know that… I love you. And I’m so proud of each and every one of you for trying your best.”

“It should go without saying, really,” agreed Jack as he turned around to look at his two children with a proud smile. “No matter what the results are, you’ve done so much to help protect the town—the world—and I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say that we are all grateful.”

“Jack’s right,” Maddie nodded, though her smile was still strained as she kept on glancing up at the screen, clearly waiting to see her son returning safely. “Even if this doesn’t work, we can all tell you’ve put everything you had into this, and we love you so much for trying your best and not giving up, even when things seem hopeless.”

Danny cocked his head to the side. “None of this even happened yet—”

Jazz slapped him upside the head, then turned to beam at their parents. “Thanks. And I’m sure we’ll do it all over again if we have to.”

“Let’s hope we don’t have to,” mumbled Sam.

They glanced back at Vlad, who blinked down at them, then looked away with a humph. Valerie wasn’t sure what he was thinking about, but she imagined it couldn’t be good. At least she knew for sure he wouldn’t be able to hide once all this was over—all of Amity Park knew the truth about him, after all, and she didn’t doubt they would do something to stop him the moment they could.

“We love you, too, Dad,” said Jazz.

Tears gathering in her eyes, Maddie said, “At least we’re all together.”

“I…” Jazz sniffed as her own tears started streaming down her cheeks. “Oh, Mom. There’s something you need to know.”

Following Jazz’s line of sight, Maddie glanced over to Danny’s robot before bending down before it only to frown. She widened her eyes and gasped as she pulled off its wig.

“A robot? Where’s Danny?” Raising her voice, Maddie whirled on her daughter. “Jasmine, where is your brother?”

Jazz’s response was to turn to look at the crashed jet, which made Jack and Maddie look at it with terror, shock and worry taking over their features as smoke billowed from the top of the mountain.

“Jack, where is Danny?” asked Maddie desperately.

Danny curled into himself, his eyes wide open as he stared at the reaction of his family to the realization of who he was exactly—and what may have happened.

Valerie didn’t exactly think he was surprised by the reactions, because it was very obvious the Fentons loved their two children more than anything. But even she could admit that it hurt to see the genuine devastation and hopelessness that seemed to wash over all of them in the video.

She never wanted to see her dad looking as alarmed and helpless and wrecked because of her. It was a horrible thing to see, and Valerie was certain Danny will carry this image of his family in his mind, whether he wanted to or not. It would probably haunt him—unironically—knowing what might have happened had his parents not found out his identity before he was in mortal danger again.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” he muttered.

“Oh, sweetie,” said Maddie softly. She frowned down at her seat, then unceremoniously climbed over its back to stand in front of Danny. He watched her as she knelt down and wrapped her arms around him, embracing him tightly. “Don’t apologize, Danny. This is not your fault. You’re just trying to do what’s right, and we’re simply worried about you. It’s okay. We’re your parents—it’s what we do.”

“Of course, it would have been nice to know beforehand,” said Jack with a shrug, “but we’ll take this over nothing. Either way, we know the truth, and it only makes us even more proud. Also guilty—incredibly guilty—but we’ll talk about that later.”

Luckily, nobody said a word for the duration of the hug. Valerie knew from experience that normally Danny pulled away from his parents or sister when they were clingy in front of other people because it embarrassed him, so she figured he really needed this if he was allowing his mom to hug him in front of all of Amity Park.

Smiling to herself, Valerie pressed herself to her dad’s side, relishing the knowledge that he was right beside her, safe and sound. She couldn’t imagine him being in danger like that. She couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to see him risking his life to try and save her—let alone the entire world. She would be terrified of something happening to him.

Maybe that was how the Fentons felt about Danny.

Eventually, Danny pulled away, looking slightly awkward, but mostly just at ease after everything they’ve seen. His mom ruffled his hair a little as she got up, which he didn’t seem to appreciate as much as the hug. Then she turned to kiss Jazz on the cheek, something that her daughter seemed to value much more than Danny.

Once Maddie climbed back over to her own seat, she settled down next to Jack, the two of them keeping close, as if to remind themselves that everything was okay and that they were safe despite what the future may hold.

Sam perked up and gestured upward, toward the sky. “Look, the portal!” she called, alerting everyone else.

They turned to watch as Danny, followed by all of the other ghosts from the Ghost Zone, flew through it and toward the contraption that was built for the plan. Everyone sighed in relief and cheered at the sight, and a few people shook themselves and ran back to do whatever needed to be done.

Danny sighed in relief. “They listened after all. I’m kind of… shocked.”

“You said they would listen!” argued Valerie.

“I assumed they would, but I can never be too sure. They decide what they want to do, and usually whatever it is involves a lot of hurting me and much less helping me. So I was a tiny bit unsure about this plan, okay?”

Sam snorted, though she, too, looked incredibly reassured now that they saw that the plan wasn’t going to ultimately fail. They still had a chance. They just needed to hope this would actually work—that all these ghosts could turn the entire planet intangible. Because if they couldn’t…

Valerie shook her head.

“Well, time to see if this was worth the effort,” said Tucker nervously as he twisted his beret a little, as if unable to sit still and not fidget with something.

Valerie couldn’t even blame him—her leg was bopping up and down whether she liked it or not. She felt like she was holding her breath, waiting to see what would happen next, waiting to see what the fate of the Earth would be after everything that was done to try and save it.

“This has to work,” she heard her dad mutter under his mustache. “We can’t afford for it not to.”

“Yeah, it has it.”

The scene sped up for a few moments before it slowed back down again. The ghosts were all keeping their hands on the metallic contraption, shaking and trembling as they grunted from the effort of maintaining their intangibility, the entire world around them looking quite ethereal.

Through gritted teeth, Danny said into an earpiece, “Where is the asteroid?”

There was no verbal response—instead the glowing Disasteroid burst through the ground right next to them, and it flew away, followed closely by several smaller rocks that must have broken from it at some point in its journey from Saturn.

Once it was gone, the ghosts let go of their intangibility and people could be heard cheering from the command center.

“Yes!”

“It worked!”

“I can’t believe it…”

“I knew my ghost boy could do it! I never doubted him for a second.”

“That had to be tiring, huh?”

“We’re not doomed! We’re not doomed!”

People were celebrating all around. It was like they didn’t even remember that none of this has happened yet—they were too ecstatic by what they just saw to be able to think logically about all of this. Valerie herself felt like getting up and jumping in delight at the knowledge that they actually did it—in a future that may or may not happen.

Instead, she stayed seated, grinning at her dad as he hugged her, his arms enveloping her like he was worried she might somehow slip away and disappear. She returned the favor, content to stay this way, feeling giddy at the fact that the Earth could survive even something like that with the right plan in mind.

She closed her eyes for a moment to drown everything else out. The only thought on her mind was that there was something empowering in knowing that they could deal with something as big and disastrous as a giant asteroid. She didn’t know everything Danny’s been through, but she did know this—so far he always managed to deal with whatever he had to face. He hasn’t failed Amity Park when it truly mattered—not even once.

And now they could all see that he could even deal with something that Vlad Plasmius—a ghost that’s had much more experience than Danny—couldn’t make heads or tails of. It had to feel good for Danny to know that he finally beat Vlad once and for all.

Although, now that she thought about it, they had no idea what happened to Vlad after all of this. He hasn’t been mentioned again since his failed attempt at turning the asteroid intangible and taking over the world. Did he come back to Earth and went into hiding? Did the Guys in White capture him? Was he—

Wait.

Valerie opened her eyes and pulled away from her dad in order to glance around the room. She found them fairly quickly—two men wearing impeccable white suits that seemed to be observing the scene without actually celebrating with the others. Instead, they talked to each other quietly, keeping their eyes on the screen, Danny and Vlad.

The Guys in White. They’ve been trying to capture ghosts—especially Danny Phantom—for a really long time now. And the thing was, Valerie wasn’t sure they would lay off him now that they knew he was part human. Chances were higher that they would want to capture and study him even more, to try and understand how his whole ‘being a halfa’ thing worked.

It made her blood run cold.

She moved to look at Danny. He was busy talking to Tucker and Sam, a big smile on his face as he nodded at something Tucker said and held Sam’s hand in his, which seemed to please both teens.

“Hey, Jazz?” Valerie said.

The ginger turned to look at her curiously, her happy, content smile slipping a little when she seemed to notice Valerie’s worry. “What’s up, Valerie?”

“Look, I know that it looks like most people are okay with Danny being Danny Phantom and Danny Fenton,” she started, then pointed at the two white-cladded man, “but what about them? I get the feeling they won’t hesitate to capture and dissect him, claiming he has no rights because he’s not human.”

Following her finger, Jazz’s gaze focused on the men for a moment before her face darkened. She cast a look toward Danny, who was now leaning forward to hear what his mother had to say, so he wasn’t even aware of the mood shift beside him.

“Danny will probably brush it off as nothing and say the Guys in White aren’t capable enough to capture him,” whispered Jazz. “But now that they know who he is, they’re a lot more dangerous. I’ll talk to my parents as soon as we’re out of here. I’ll try to keep an eye on Danny—and I’m sure Sam and Tucker will stick to him like glue, too—”

“I’ll help,” said Valerie.

Jazz gave her a long, assessing look. Then she smiled. “I’m glad you and Danny get along now,” she said softly. “He hated fighting you, and he mostly believed you’d never hurt him if you knew who he was. It’s good to see he was right.”

Lips tugging up and eyes crinkling, Valerie nodded in determination. “Well, it’s time I started paying back for everything I’ve put him through—starting by making sure he doesn’t get captured by these goons over there.”

They exchanged a determined smile, then turned their focus back to the screen as everyone else began to settle down.

Danny, beaming at the success, flew down to the ground as people streamed out of the command center, cheering.

He barely managed to touch the ground before Sam jumped forward to wrap her arms around him, making him huff. A second later Jazz followed suit. When Tucker joined in on the hug, Danny lost his balance and they all crumbled to the floor, still grinning.

“Awesome,” said Sam happily.

Jazz put her hand on Danny’s shoulder. “Nice job, little brother. Or should I say… hero.”

He smiled at her.

“Definitely a hero,” said Jazz to Danny.

The majority crowd voiced its assent, people bobbing their heads and naming different times when Danny Phantom ended up saving them or their friends and family from some kind of ghost attack. Or just from any other thing he happened to come across—like the school bus that had nearly ended up drowning with everyone inside before Danny had caught it and pulled it back to safety.

The more things were told, the more Valerie’s grin grew. She could see that Danny felt bashful and slightly uncomfortable with all the attention on him, but she thought it was amazing to realize that someone she personally knew was responsible for so much good; that a person she was close to was such an incredible character that’s influenced the entire town for a while now.

And in the future, it seemed, he would become famous all over the rest of the globe, too. That is, if some kind of huge catastrophe were to take place. Hopefully, nothing will happen, but with their track record… Valerie wasn’t too optimistic.

They all turned to look at all of the ghosts when they landed down on the ground in front of them, looking at Danny with their usual frowns.

Scrambling to get up, Danny said, “I don’t know what to say other than… thanks, Skulker. To all of you.”

Skulker grabbed the front of Danny’s suit and leaned forward menacingly, though Danny didn’t look like he was worried about being in danger. He just met Skulker’s glare with an open, curious look of his own.

“Don’t get too mushy on us, ghost child. Remember, I’ll never stop hunting you.”

There were a few groans and displeased comments from the crowd sitting in the theater, but nobody looked too upset—they were clearly still riding the high of knowing their world wasn’t going to get smashed after all, so they couldn’t muster much frustration toward Skulker.

His lips tugged up in a smirk and his green eyes narrowed down mirthfully. “And now that you’ve saved your world, you’re a much more valuable prize.”

Letting go of Danny’s suit, Skulker started flying toward the portal, the others following in his wake. The moment they were all gone, the portal closed and disappeared.

“Oh, look,” said Danny with a smile that Valerie realized was actually sincere. “What a warm farewell.”

“You’re really strange, Fenton,” Dash said from his seat.

“Wait, so… are ghosts normally just hostile toward each other, or do they all just hate you specifically?” asked a woman in the row behind them. “Because that was like… I mean, it wasn’t exactly friendly because he still threatened to hunt you, but he wasn’t attacking you on the spot—and neither were the others.”

Danny grimaced. “Um… depends on the ghost?” He shrugged and turned his head to look at the woman. “Most of them don’t like me because I don’t let them stay in Amity Park. Some are like Skulker, and they’re just obsessed with me specifically… But… I don’t really know what they’re like with each other. Maybe not the friendliest, but also… not terrible. They can work together.”

A little boy next to the woman piped up, saying, “They just worked together with you.”

“Yeah, they do that sometimes, when they don’t have a choice.”

“Against Pariah Dark, for example,” said Tucker.

“Or when I ended up in Walker’s prison,” added Danny.

“And Wulf helped us save our class from Walker over the summer,” Sam said.

Valerie shuddered at the strange memory she had from that time. She didn’t remember much, but she knew ghosts had captured her. She tried asking if anyone knew what happened exactly, but Tucker, Sam and Danny never volunteered any information, of course, so she was just left with lots of questions.

Now, as she watched Danny and Sam exchange a secretive smile, she decided that maybe their decision not to share anything from that time everyone was gone was because it was just private rather than a secret related to ghosts. Or… perhaps it was because both those reasons were true, intertwined with each other.

Maddie whirled around to look at Danny. “You ended up in a ghost prison?” she said shrilly.

Danny winced. “Uh… yeah? The second time I entered the Ghost Zone. It’s run by Walker—the white ghost with the black fedora. He sentenced me for ten thousand years in his prison which, you know, wasn’t going to happen. And plenty of the other ghosts I’ve encountered were there. So, naturally, I had to convince them not to kill me and instead work together to escape.”

“What did you do to end up in prison?” said Jack curiously, looking much less alarmed than his wife.

“I may or may not have lost Aunt Alicia’s present. It ended up in the Ghost Zone, and apparently you’re not allowed to take real world items there, so Walker took me away. It was a whole thing, really…”

People gaped at him. Valerie could see Tucker and Sam’s parents turning to look at each other in mild alarm, apparently still not used to hearing such stories from Danny. Which was fair—Valerie’s brain was melting, too. No, wait, it was already far beyond melting. She was honestly shocked she was still functioning well enough to pass as a human being.

“I think you broke them,” whispered Sam. “Well done, Danny.”

He looked around awkwardly and then sank a little in his seat as he turned back to the video. Apparently he decided the best course of action would be to ignore the stares he was getting and pretend nothing was out of the ordinary.

Luckily for him, it worked; soon the people in the hall focused back on the screen, though they kept on sending him looks every now and then, as if wondering what other crazy stories he had to share.

“Nice job, Danny,” said Jack Fenton sternly, drawing the attention of the four kids to him and Maddie. Then the man’s expression softened as Maddie smiled. “Or should we say… Danny,” he added in a gentler tone.

“What? Uh…” Danny looked around in confusion, sounding a mildly panicked. “Sorry, citizens,” he said in a slightly deeper voice, “but I have no idea what you’re talking about—”

People laughed a little at the poor act Danny was putting to try and fool his parents, and the boy sank even more in his seat, grumbling something about how unfair all of this was.

“I thought this was supposed to be about Vlad, but we haven’t even seen him in a while!” he hissed, his head turned toward Valerie. “What gives?”

“What are you looking at me for? I’m not Desiree—she’s the one controlling this wish.” She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. “But seeing as she doesn’t particularly like you, I can’t fault her for making this whole thing focus on you to turn you into a joke.”

He frowned. “Wow, thanks,” he said sarcastically. Then he turned to look at Tucker and Sam, who were both snickering abashedly. “Quit it!”

It only made them laugh harder.

Maddie left Jack’s side to grab Danny’s hand softly. “Isn’t there something you wanna tell us?”

Danny stared back at her and Jack bleakly. His mouth closed as he seemed to try and understand what was happening. The other people from the command center gathered around in a loose circle, giving them all some space, but still watching eagerly.

“It’s okay, Danny,” Jazz said, coming to stand next to him. “They know.”

“Isn’t it amazing how one comment in the middle of this chaos was enough to let them realize who Danny Phantom is after two years of having no idea?” said Sam. “It’s kind of weird, actually.”

Danny opened his mouth to say something, then clamped it shut, looking like he wasn’t even sure what he was about to say back to that.

Which was understandable, because Valerie had to admit that it really was kind of strange, how Danny’s parents needed one small clue to put the pieces together when they must have run into Phantom multiple times before; and since he was Danny, Velarie didn’t doubt for a second that he most certainly let something slip around them.

Come to think of it, earlier today, when Danny and she had gone down to the Fentons’ lab to look for something that might help Danielle, Danny had called Jack his dad and then quickly corrected himself. In retrospect, it was glaringly obvious, but back then Valerie was too annoyed and baffled by the entire situation to pay attention to that small detail.

A foolish thing to do, really, but she wasn’t about to dwell on that right now—maybe later, once she had some time to think about all of this properly, by herself, without all these strangers surrounding her.

“They had no reason to believe that Danny Phantom could possibly be their son,” said Jazz, somewhat repeating her earlier words. “Ghosts are supposed to be people who died, and Danny Fenton was very much alive. But once Mom realized Danny wasn’t actually with us, it must have clicked. Plus, with the knowledge that Vlad was a half-ghost, the conclusion made much more sense.”

“I suppose that could be it…” said Sam.

“And we can’t even ask Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, because they haven’t experienced that moment themselves, so they wouldn’t necessarily know the answer,” said Tucker.

Danny shook his head. “Does it really matter right now? The important thing is that they know now—and apparently they were already going to know, so the secret would have come out one way or the other soon enough. It doesn’t matter how.”

Jazz looked like she wanted to argue, but she didn’t say anything.

He still seemed to hesitate, looking around at all of the people gathered around before focusing on his parents again. Then he set his jaw and balled his hands determinedly as the white rings swept up and down his body, taking away Danny Phantom and leaving behind Danny Fenton.

For a moment everything was silent, and then everyone started clapping and cheering again, including Jack and Maddie who smiled warmly at their son.

The screen went black.

Valerie barely had the time to notice herself standing among the cheering, clapping crowd of spectators on screen, before she blinked and found herself sitting back on the rooftop where she’d made the wish in the first place. She was so startled by the change of scenery that she lost her balance and yelped in alarm as she started falling toward the faraway ground.

Before she could panic for real—or at least activate her suit so she could capture herself—a flash of light came from behind her and a hand grabbed her arm and sent a strange sensation through her entire body. She felt weightless, like she weighed nothing at all. She could just fly upward and never look back.

When she glanced over her shoulder, she found Danny there, holding her hand and pulling her back up to the edge of the roof. He was Phantom again, and she figured he must have extended his powers to her for a moment there because the second he let go of her arm, her body felt the power of gravity pulling at it again.

“W-what’s going on? Is it over?” she asked, blinking dazedly around her.

“Seems like it,” he said. He stretched a little, somewhat like a cat, and then yawned and dropped his head back so that he was staring up at the few visible stars that were twinkling above their heads. “I know Desiree is still loose, probably waiting to grant more wishes… but I just want to go to sleep.”

Yeah, now that he brought it up, Valerie could feel the exhaustion making her eyelids feel heavy. She yawned, too, her eyes trailing down to her watch. It was later than it was before the wish, meaning they’ve been watching that future for over an hour. An hour out of her night was just… lost. Seriously, she was never making a wish again.

“At least it was interesting, right?” she said, blinking lazily. “And everyone found out the truth about Vlad.”

Danny grinned, his green eyes gleaming happily. “Yeah, that part was pretty great. I can’t wait to see what he’s gonna do now that everyone’s on to him.”

“And there are the Guys in White, remember? Since they know who you are—”

“Everyone knows who I am.”

Danny sounded like he wasn’t sure how to feel about it. She figured it would take some time to digest everything properly and actually deal with this entire mess. Jazz might have a few ideas as to how to move past this whole thing without losing their heads completely.

Turning to look at him, Valerie frowned. It was hard to see past the glow that always blurred his features, but now that she knew what to look for, she could certainly see Danny Fenton’s face underneath the aura of death. This was her best friend—and he looked so troubled right now.

“I’m sorry I made the wish,” she said sincerely. “I know I wasn’t planning on this to happen, but… I’m still sorry.”

He shook his head and offered her a small but genuine smile. “It’s all right. I guess… it’s kind of a relief? I don’t need to hide so many things anymore, right? That’s a good thing…” He yawned again. “Maybe I’ll talk to Jazz tomorrow. She’ll probably have tons of things to say about this entire experience.”

“Tell her to talk to me right afterward.”

“I’m sure she’ll have a list of people to deal with.”

Valerie huffed out a laugh, then looked in the direction she knew Sam’s house was in, even if she couldn’t tell which of the ones she was looking at actually belonged to her and her family. She could, however, take note of the fact that lights flickered on in windows all over town as people found themselves back in their beds, awake after this strange wish that finally came to an end.

“I’ll deal with Desiree tomorrow,” she told Danny, and before he could argue, she added, “You have enough to deal with right now. Your parents, Vlad, Sam, our school—”

He groaned. “You don’t have to point it all out—I like living in blissful ignorance, thank you very much.”

“Seriously, though, what about the Guys in White?” pressed Valerie. “I’m sure they won’t care that you’re part human, Danny. They’ll come after you, and you won’t be able to hide behind Danny Fenton anymore.”

“Ugh, it was bad enough when we had to evade them when Freakshow revealed who I was. I know they’re gonna come after me now because they did the same thing back then, but honestly… is it weird that I don’t care? I already know how to prevent them from entering my house, so they won’t be able to get me in my sleep or something.”

She wondered what exactly that Freakshow guy did that somehow revealed Danny in the past—a past Valerie couldn’t remember, for some reason. That was another question for another day. Her list was growing with every second around this guy.

“Even if that’s true,” she said, “they can still surround your house or come for you when you’re in school. They won’t just let you be because they can’t kidnap you when you’re unconscious. You do realize that, right?”

Danny waved his hand dismissively. “Either way, I’ve been able to deal with them this entire time. I’ll be able to handle it now, too. They’re not exactly as good as they pretend to be. They may have shiny gadgets, but that doesn’t make them any good at actually using them.”

Huh, Jazz was right—Danny really did dismiss this threat as nothing to be worried about. Fine, then Valerie and, apparently, every other person in his life would just have to make sure there was really nothing for him to be concerned about. After he’s been looking out for Amity Park for two years, she figured people would gladly lend a hand to help him.

Shifting in her place, Valerie worried her bottom lip, then blurted out, “So about that class ring…”

Danny’s face burned bright instantly. “Do we really have to talk about it?”

“I can overlook the ring,” she said lightly. Then, before Danny could sigh in relief, she added, “But I don’t understand what was going through your head when you decided it was a good idea to go out with the girl who’s been trying to kill you more often than not. Do you have any self-preservation skills? Or common sense, for that matter?”

“Not you, too,” he moaned. “It was bad enough when Tucker and Sam kept on chiding my poor choices back then.”

“For good reason.”

He released a long breath and tore his gaze from the stars to meet her eyes. He looked so tired—not only physically, but mentally. Despite the radiating green of his eyes, she could see the weariness that was seemingly etched in his very being. And after the last two years, she couldn’t blame him.

“Look, I wasn’t being that reckless, okay? I literally live in the same house with two ghost hunters who hate—um… used to hate me. And I figured… I mean, if I could hide the truth from them and live two separate lives, I could do the same with you. I knew you’d tear Danny Phantom to pieces if you got the chance, Val, but you liked Danny Fenton, and I liked you, too. I didn’t want to let the fact that I was part ghost take even more from me than it already has.”

She bit her lip as she took in his words. She knew they were genuine because the sincerity was written all over his face. Which was an odd thought, considering it was Danny Phantom she was currently looking at—a ghost she used to think until not too long ago couldn’t feel anything and was only trying to trick her by faking human emotions since the moment they met.

“Okay,” she said, her voice softer than it was before. “I… I kinda get it, I think.”

He smiled for a moment, obviously glad she wasn’t fighting him on this any more. He was probably sick of people judging his strange decisions. Not that it wasn’t deserved, if this was the kind of thing he did regularly. Seriously, maybe he took too many blows to the head since he started fighting ghosts. Or maybe half-dying hurt his ability to think things through properly.

Then Danny stretched again and hopped off the roof in order to hover in front of Valerie. “But I should get home before my parents decide to take the RV for a ride around town in the middle of the night.”

She nodded and activated her suit. “Good night, Danny.”

“Night, Val. See you tomorrow. Probably.”

He started flying away when she called after him, “You still owe me an explanation about that ghost dog of yours, Phantom!”

Turning around sharply, Danny’s glowing figure hovered over the city, the green of his eyes glowing more than before as he seemed to glare at Valerie from a distance. If she wasn’t mistaken, though, there was also a smile gracing his lips.

“For the hundredth time, Red, he’s not my dog!”

And then he winked out of sight, leaving her to roll her eyes to herself and fly back home.