Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Why did ghost attacks had to happen when Team Phantom was already ridiculously busy? Talk about unfair.

At least the fight was over now, even though it took the trio of friends far longer than they expected to deal with the troublemakers.

“You okay there, Danny?” Sam called, peeking into the demolished ruins of the fast food kitchen.

Danny only groaned in response and waved at her half-heartedly from the heap of broken boxes he was lying on. “I just got my butt kicked by the Box Ghost. This is officially the worst day of my life.”

“Don’t jinx it,” the goth girl muttered. She walked closer, grimacing at the sight of uncooked burger patties and other ingredients splattered over the remaining walls. “Also, the Lunch Lady was helping him. They worked… weirdly well together.”

“Yeah, what’s up with that?” Tucker wondered, following after her. “Since when do those two team up?”

Danny hadn’t paid a lot of attention to what his enemies had been saying, but it sounded like—

“I think they were here on a date.”

“Yikes,” the goth and the geek chorused, sounding equally incredulous and disturbed.

“Actually, it’s more of an ‘ew’,” Danny disagreed.

He rose into the air, grimacing at the state of his jumpsuit. Torn, dirty, stinky… It was a good thing that all the damage would fix itself after he transformed.

Not that Danny wanted to transform now, in this kitchen of horrors. It would be just his luck if he slipped and fell face-first into a puddle of mustard or something. And, unfortunately, his human clothes couldn’t conveniently repair themselves.

“Well, they can continue their date in the Ghost Zone,” Sam said dismissively. She shook the thermos with the trapped ghosts and tossed it to Tucker.

“Still, did they have to trash the Nasty Burger?” Tucker lamented as he caught the device and hid it in his backpack. “It’s gonna take ages to rebuild! I need my junk food!”

Danny looked around the ruined building — ruined mostly by him being thrown through the walls — and sighed. “Yeah, sorry about that. I should’ve stopped them before they destroyed the whole place.” He dragged his fingers through his ketchup-soaked hair. “I’m really off my game these days.”

Sam shook her head. “It’s not just you, Danny. We all should’ve done better.”

“It’s all because of that stupid C.A.T.,” Tucker scoffed. “Instead of training, like we should, we’ve been spending all our time studying for it.”

…Ah, yes, the C.A.T., also known as the Career Aptitude Test.

At the mere mention of it, Danny could feel his already rotten mood plummet even further.

As Mr. Lancer, their schoolteacher, had dramatically declared, the C.A.T. was going to determine their future. Danny wasn’t sure he entirely believed it, but he couldn’t afford any more bad grades, especially on a test that everyone put so much importance on.

Unfortunately, while they had been given some time to prepare for the test, it was nowhere near enough. Especially not for Danny, who had to deal with enemies regularly crawling out of the portal in the basement of his own home. How in the world was he supposed to study when he was too busy saving people from hostile ghosts?!

Now they were on the finish line — there was only one day left — and Danny had barely even opened his textbooks.

“I’m so gonna flunk it…” he groaned in misery. Sure, he still had a little time until the test, but fat lot of good it was gonna do to him now.

“Okay, not to change the subject, but how about we continue this somewhere else?” Sam suggested. “Let’s get out of here before your parents show up.”

His friend had a point. The last thing Danny needed was to deal with his ghost hunter parents trying to shoot him.

“And I really should go home and study,” Danny added.

If he wanted any chance of passing this test, he had to study. It wasn’t like the answers would magically fall on his lap otherwise.

Danny briefly turned intangible, finally getting rid of the various condiments splattered all over him — and heard something clatter to the floor. He rotated in the air, turning upside down to look closer at whatever object had just unstuck itself from his back.

“What the—” He picked up the strange packet and gasped. “Oh my gosh, it’s the answers to the C.A.T.!”

The trio of friends huddled together in Danny’s room, staring at the packet like it was a ticking bomb.

“So… what are we gonna do with it?” Tucker finally asked.

“Give it back to Lancer before he starts a witch-hunt?” Sam suggested dryly.

Their teacher had carried this packet in a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist as if it contained nuclear launch codes rather than the answers to a school test. The only reason Danny had managed to get it in the first place was because he had accidentally phased through said briefcase during the fight.

She couldn’t even imagine what kind of hysterics Lancer would descend into once he realized that the answers were gone.

“Yes, I should give it back,” Danny said slowly, although his tone wasn’t exactly convincing.

“Except, maybe, after the test?” Tucker piped up. He yelped when Sam kicked his shin in response. “Hey! I’m just saying what we’re all thinking!”

Sam crossed her arms. “Speak for yourself. Right, Danny?”

Danny didn’t reply, only stared silently at the packet.

Sam frowned at her friend. “Are you actually planning to use the answers? I thought you were better than that, Danny.”

Danny threw his hands in the air. “Well, it’s not like I’ve spent the last month playing video games! I’ve been hunting ghosts! I barely had enough time to sleep, much less study!”

Sam opened her mouth, ready to retort, but paused and simply looked at her friend. Danny looked beyond exhausted, his eyes bloodshot and his skin so pale, it was nearly grey.

He made it look so simple — it was easy to forget how much the ghost fights took out of him.

“C’mon, man!” Tucker said. “It’s just a stupid test. You don’t need to cheat to pass it. And hey, you still have a day left to study!”

“Well, I’m not smart like you, Tuck,” Danny replied tiredly. “And Lancer was pretty clear about how important it is.”

Sam rolled her eyes. “Lancer always says stuff like that. He’s dramatic.”

“If you think this test is so meaningless,” Danny snapped, his eyes flaring green, “then why do you even care if I cheat?” He held up the still closed packet. “Why shouldn’t I open this up and get the answers, huh? It’s not fair that our classmates were able to study for this stupid test in peace — and I couldn’t do the same because I had to spend all my time protecting them from ghosts! I’m risking my life every single day for no reward, so why shouldn’t I take at least something back?!”

Sam sighed heavily. She didn’t want to condone cheating, but she could understand where Danny was coming from. It was hard to play by the rules when the deck was stacked so badly against him.

Ultimately, Danny was her friend, and Sam would support him no matter what decision he made.

“Danny, listen,” Sam finally said. “How about you get some sleep and decide what to do in the morning? You are too tired to study and you are not thinking clearly.”

“You sound like Jazz,” Danny muttered. Then his shoulders slumped, all anger draining out of him to be replaced with exhaustion. “But I guess you are right…”

Tucker gave him a thumbs up. “Get some rest, man. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

They both got up to leave, but paused when Danny uncertainly called out. “…Guys? It’s— it’s not bad that I want to look at the answers, is it? I mean, I know it’s not exactly the right thing to do, but—”

Sam exchanged exasperated glances with Tucker, then they both slung their arms over their friend’s shoulders.

“Danny, I don’t care about this stupid test,” Sam said. “If you really think that cheating is the best thing to do — then cheat. I don’t like it and I’m worried that it will just get you in trouble, but I’m not gonna stop being your friend over it.”

“Yeah, I’m not gonna cheat myself, because I’d definitely get caught if I did,” Tucker added. “But if you wanna risk it — I’m cool with it. It’s just some school test, so who cares?”

Squished close as they were, Sam could feel her friend finally relax. “…Thanks, guys. You’re right, it’s only a school test. It’s not the end of the world if I fail it, right?”

The next day, Danny still hadn’t decided what to do with the answers. Lancer hadn’t seemed to notice that they were missing — at least, not yet — but instead of relief, it only brought a sick sense of anticipation.

When the classes were finally over, Danny hurried outside, practically running down the school corridors in his haste to get home and study as much as he still could.

“Hey! Wait for us!” Tucker shouted, while he and Sam struggled to catch up.

They were almost out of the building, when the door of the computer class suddenly slammed open. Students ran out screaming their heads off, followed by their teacher, and behind them a very familiar and wholly unwelcome voice cackled maniacally.

“Yes! Run in terror of Technus, the master of all things electronic and beeping!”

“No-no-no-no, why him?! Why now?!” Danny groaned.

Technus was usually more of a nuisance than a threat, but his ability to travel through electric wires made him a chore to deal with. It usually took hours to chase him down and corner him long enough to capture.

Then the ghost himself floated out of the classroom, surrounded by computers bobbing in the air around him.

“Ghost child!” he proclaimed loudly. “Observe how I, Technus, use these computing devices to take over the world!”

“Technus, please… Can’t we just… postpone this whole thing?” Danny practically begged. “I really, really don’t have the time to deal with you right now.”

The ghost reeled back, startled. “Huh?! Postpone?! What sort of trickery is this?!”

“Just go back to the Ghost Zone and tomorrow after classes we can fight. I’ll even let you keep these computers, they are garbage anyway. And this way you’ll have a whole day to prepare for our battle!”

Technus scoffed. “You cannot fool me so easily, ghost child! The master of technology will never fall for your tricks!”

“Well, I tried,” Danny sighed. “Going ghost, I guess…”

Sometimes he really hated his life.

Jazz hummed under her breath as she ruffled through the fridge in search of breakfast, trying to remember which food was safe to eat and which would try to eat her. One of the unfortunate consequences of having ghost hunters for parents and living in a house with a ghost portal in the basement was the constant threat of ecto-contamination in every area of their home.

Getting bitten by a reanimated chicken was not how Jazz wanted to start her day, and unlike her half-ghost brother, she couldn’t fight the possessed food with her bare hands.

But speak of the devil…

“Good morning, Danny,” she called, when her brother shuffled down the stairs looking half-asleep.

She had heard him return home late last night and immediately crash down to sleep, but he clearly hadn’t managed to get enough rest.

“Some morning,” Danny grunted in reply, grabbing a box of cereal for himself.

“Ah, right… Today is the big test, isn’t?”

Danny winced. “Yeah, the C.A.T. Didn’t get much time to study for it though.”

‘Because of the ghost fighting,’ Jazz added mentally.

She had known that Danny was the local superhero for a while now, but she had kept it to herself. If Danny had chosen to share his secret with her, it would’ve been a different story, but Jazz had only found out about it by complete accident. It didn’t feel right to confront him over something that should’ve been private.

It still stung that Danny had kept something this huge from her, but Jazz could admit that she hadn’t given him much reason to trust her either, especially with how vehemently she used to deny the existence of ghosts.

She would wait until Danny was ready. Until then, she would keep his secret and try to support him.

Jazz put her hand on his shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll do great anyway, Danny.”

He gave her a wry smile in return. “I’m not, but so long as I don’t get an F, it’s fine, right?”

So he had decided not to cheat after all? Good.

Jazz knew that he had the answers to the test — Danny and his friends had been rather loud in their discussion — but she didn’t want to pressure him. Danny was under enough pressure already.

“Absolutely not!” their mother piped up, peeking into the kitchen. “All Fentons get straight A’s! Or at least solid B-minuses. Especially on a test that will determine your future!”

Jazz saw her brother’s eye start to twitch and fought an urge to facepalm. ‘Thanks a lot, mom. Now he is definitely going to cheat.’

As he carefully copied the answers, Danny couldn’t stop his hands from shaking. He knew that his classmates were too busy writing their own tests, but he still felt like every eye was on him.

He had never cheated in class before, and he hated doing it now, but Danny couldn’t disappoint his parents.

Not again.

He would never be as smart as they wanted him to be, but if he got a decent grade just this once… Maybe they would finally be proud of him.

Being a geek did not mean that Tucker liked tests. Or homework. Or school in general.

Sure, studying came easy to him — so long as it was math or physics or some other subject that made sense instead of something like literature with its endless essays on why the curtains were blue and other such nonsense — but it was still boring and the tests stressed him out.

Especially tests as important as the C.A.T.

Tucker nervously double-checked his answers. Some he was reasonably sure he got right, others he didn’t know a thing about and had to resort to guessing.

“Time’s up,” Lancer called. “Put your pencils down.”

Tucker slumped in his chair with a sigh. Well, no time to second-guess himself now.

The teacher walked between the rows of desks, collecting the tests. Only when the whole stack was gathered on his own table did he dismiss the class.

Unlike most of his classmates, Tucker didn’t immediately run for the exit. Instead, he stepped closer to Danny’s desk, where Sam was already waiting, looking concerned.

“You okay there, man?” Tucker asked.

Danny wordlessly shook his head, looking pale and nauseous.

“C’mon, let’s get you outside,” Sam said. “Some fresh air will be good for you.”

They had to practically drag their friend out of the classroom. Once outside, the trio settled on the front steps of Casper High.

Tucker waited until Danny looked a little less green before asking, “So… Did you…? You know…?”

His friend nodded silently.

Sam scowled briefly, clearly unhappy with his decision, but then shrugged. “Well, what’s done is done. Let’s just hope that you don’t get caught.”

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starving!” Tucker proclaimed, eager to change the uncomfortable subject. “Let’s go to the Nasty—” He paused, remembering yesterday’s fight that ended with the untimely demise of their favorite hangout place. “…Oh, right. D’you guys know any other burger place around here?”

“No, but I do know a pizza place,” Sam suggested.

“As long as it has meat, I’m game,” Tucker readily agreed.

Sam rolled her eyes. “Yes, it does, but I wish you tried something a little healthier and environmentally friendly for once in your life. Eating a vegan pizza won’t kill you.”

“You don’t know that!” Tucker protested. “Maybe it will! So I’m just gonna stick to regular pepperoni.” He lightly elbowed Danny. “What about you?”

“…Huh?” Danny blinked at him owlishly, seemingly startled out of his thoughts.

“You up for a pizza?”

“Uh… Sure?”

Tucker pumped his fist in the air. “Alright! Lead the way, Sam!”

“Actually…” Danny interrupted with a quick glance at the main doors of Casper High behind them. “Can you give me a few minutes first? There’s something I need to do.”

Did he need to go to the bathroom or something?

“Sure, we’ll wait here,” Tucker agreed.

Danny gave him a pale smile and practically ran into the building.

As he approached the classroom, Danny felt more nervous with every step. He had faced deadly threats almost daily, yet he was more terrified of his teacher than of any hostile ghosts.

But he had made a wrong choice, so he had to at least try to make it right.

He took a steadying breath and entered the classroom.

Lancer looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. “Mr. Fenton, is there a problem?”

Danny swallowed nervously. “Um, actually, Mr. Lancer, there is.”

He pulled out the packet with the answers and put it on the teacher’s desk.

“I found this the other day outside the Nasty Burger.”

Lancer picked up the packet. “Hm. The seal is broken.” He didn’t sound surprised. “Couldn’t help peeking at the answers, could you, Mr. Fenton?”

Danny flinched and looked away. “I’m— I’m sorry.”

“You do realize that cheating means automatic failure?” Lancer continued.

His voice was calm, but Danny almost wished he was yelling instead. Dramatic shouting was easy to dismiss, but this quiet, collected tone made this all a thousand times worse.

“Yes, I— I know,” Danny whispered.

“So why admit it? You could’ve simply stayed quiet.”

Danny looked up at his teacher. “Because I’m not a cheater,” he said firmly. “I refuse to be.”

Lancer’s stern expression softened slightly. “Well, you'll have a chance to prove that when you take the make-up test next week, now won’t you?”

Danny gasped, barely believing his ears. “Really?!”

“Don’t think I’m letting this incident slide, Mr. Fenton. I have already called your parents for a meeting this evening.”

Danny winced but nodded. “Okay, that’s… fair.”

“You will also have detention for a week, starting tomorrow. But for now…” Lancer silently gestured at the door.

“Thanks, Mr. Lancer!”

Before his teacher could get a chance to change his mind, Danny hurried outside where his friends were waiting for him on the stairs.

“Care to share?” Sam asked.

Danny gave her a tired smile. “I told Lancer that I cheated and gave the answers back. He said I could take a make-up test next week, but he’s still going to tell my parents about this.”

Tucker groaned. “Why did you do this, man? You either don’t cheat at all or you cheat and stay quiet!”

Sam stomped on his foot. “What Tucker is trying to say, you did the right thing. Want us to come with you for moral support?”

Danny nodded and smiled. His friends really were the best.

Sam was right, Lancer was dramatic. Why else would he call their meeting near the half-demolished Nasty Burger?

On the other hand, the school was probably already closed for the night, and he doubted many people would want to enter the lair of Amity Park’s resident mad scientists. Or invite them into their own home.

The Fentons had that effect on people.

Of course, Danny quickly stopped trying to decipher his teacher’s thought process once the whole story came out. It was only the presence of Sam and Tucker — and, surprisingly, Jazz — at his side that kept him from wilting completely under his parents’ disappointed looks.

“I’m really sorry…” Danny whispered.

“You should be. Fentons don’t cheat,” his dad said sternly, completely unlike his usual exhuberant self. Then he smiled, suddenly cheerful, and clapped Danny’s shoulder with enough strength that he almost collapsed on the spot. “But it took guts to admit it, Danny-boy!”

“I’m not happy that you cheated — far from it,” his mom added. “I thought we’ve raised you better than this. But you did the right thing in the end, and that is important too.”

“What mom and dad mean, everyone makes mistakes, especially when under so much pressure,” Jazz interjected.

“Pressure? What pressure?” their dad asked obliviously. “It was just a stupid cat test! Nothing to worry about! I failed one of these and I didn’t turn out to be a cat.”

Jazz rolled her eyes to the sky like she was begging for strength, and judging from Lancer’s incredulous expression, he was solely regretting gathering this meeting instead of simply making a phone call.

His mom suddenly gasped. “Oh! Is this about what I said earlier?”

“…I just wanted you to be proud of me,” Danny whispered. “I’m sorry I’m not smart enough.”

His mom pulled him into hug. “Danny, sweetie, of course we’re proud of you! I’m sorry if we made you feel like we’re not.”

His dad hugged them both, strong enough to sweep them into the air. “We love you, son, no matter what grades you get! And that’s not gonna change even if you do turn out to be a cat!”

It felt like some terrible weight had lifted itself off his shoulders, and Danny silently hugged his parents back.

“That doesn’t mean you’re off the hook though, young man,” his mom said once their feet were back on the ground. “You are grounded!”

“And all the chores you’ve been ignoring are waiting for you back home,” his dad added. “Doubled!”

Lancer loudly cleared his throat. “If I may make a suggestion, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, perhaps the chores could wait until after the remedial test? I’m warning you right now: Daniel will not get another chance if he fails it.”

His mom nodded. “Yes, you are correct, Mr. Lancer. Danny needs to focus on his schoolwork.” She turned to Danny. “But once that test is over — and I do expect you to study hard for it—”

“—It’s back to the chores for you!” his dad finished. “Tripled!”

Finally deciding that enough was enough, Lancer called the end to this meeting.

“Right, we should probably get going too,” Sam said.

Danny smiled. “Thanks for being there for me, guys.”

Tucker gave him an easy grin. “Hey, what are friends for? See you tomorrow.”

They waved their goodbyes, and Danny started to walk towards the GAV with a new spring in his step, when a sudden noise at the edge of his hearing made him pause. “Huh? What’s that sound?”

“What sound?” Jazz asked.

“Do you hear a ghost?!” their dad gasped.

Danny shook his head. His ghost sense hadn’t activated. “I don’t think so? It’s more like… rattling?”

Sam and Tucker had paused too, and even Lancer had stopped as the mysterious sound grew louder and louder.

“I can hear it too,” Sam frowned.

Tucker pointed at the ruins of the Nasty Burger. “I think it’s coming from there.”

“Think we should check it out?” Danny suggested.

Something about that sound was putting him on edge.

“Don’t even think about it!” his mom vehemently refused. “One of those evil ghosts might’ve left some trap inside. Kids, get into the GAV and let the experts deal with it. Jack, grab the Fenton bazooka and—”

The sound suddenly rose in pitch and Danny lunged after his parents trying to stop them because something was wrong—

And then there was only darkness.

Chapter Text

The doctors had called him lucky for surviving the explosion with only a few scratches and bruises.

He was the only one who did.

It still didn’t feel real. One moment his friends and family were alive and healthy, and the next—

Danny squeezed his eyes shut trying to banish the image of the broken, burnt things his loved ones had become.

It didn’t help. Nothing would.

They were gone. They were all gone, and Danny had done nothing to prevent it.

If he had been stronger, he would have beaten the ghosts before they had caused so much destruction.

If he had been faster, he would have saved everyone from the explosion.

If he had been smarter (if he had been a better person), he wouldn’t have cheated.

But he wasn’t.

And now everyone he cared about was dead.

So why, why, why was he still alive?! Why did his ghost powers protect him and only him?

It just wasn’t fair. His friends and family deserved to live far more than he did.

This was all his fault…

A knock on the door of his hospital room dragged Danny out of his spiraling thoughts.

“Come in,” he called out, his voice dry and raspy from disuse.

A nurse opened the door and peeked in. “Mr. Fenton, there is someone here to see you,” she said softly. “Do you feel like you can handle a visitor?”

The doctors and nurses had been walking on eggshells around him. Not because of any physical injuries, but because they worried about his mental state.

Why did they even care? It wasn’t like he deserved it.

“Mr. Fenton?” the nurse called out again.

“Who is it?” Danny asked.

Who would even care enough to come see him?

“Mr. Vlad Masters.”

Of course.

“…Let him in.”

It wasn’t like denying him entrance would do any good when Vlad could simply phase through a wall or fly through a window.

“Hello, little badger,” Vlad greeted him with a painfully fake smile.

Danny only stared at him blankly in return. He supposed he should be worried about what his nemesis was plotting, but he couldn’t summon even a twinge of fear. It wasn’t like there was anything Vlad could possibly do to him that was worse than the hell he was already living in.

“I came here as soon as I heard about—” Vlad stumbled over his words, his composed image cracking slightly. He grabbed a chair and sat down next to Danny’s bed. “I know I’m probably the last person you want to see right now, but—” He sighed heavily. “It turns out that Jack had listed me as your guardian in his will. Maddie had listed her sister Alicia—”

“She doesn’t want me,” Danny rasped. “She has already told me that.”

She hadn’t put it quite like that — she had been talking about low income and unsuitable conditions and how the other guardian would surely do a much better job — but it was still the same in the end. She didn’t want to take him in.

And why would she? She barely even knew him.

Who would ever want to take care of some useless kid who brought nothing but disaster?

Vlad’s expression darkened. “She doesn’t deserve the trust that Madeline had placed in her. However, her decision leaves me as your next of kin.”

Danny smiled bitterly. “So you got what you wanted after all, huh?”

Vlad looked stricken. “Little badger, I— I know you’re not going to believe me, but that’s not what I wanted. Not like this.”

“You’re right, I don’t believe you,” Danny agreed. “But it doesn’t matter now, does it?”

He turned away from Vlad. “Do what you want, I’m not going to stop you.”

Danny felt a hand hover over his shoulder then move away without making contact.

“…Get some rest, my boy. I’ll come back as soon as I can.”

Once he exited the hospital, Vlad immediately hid in his limo where the tinted windows and the soundproofing would give him some privacy. After all, he had things to do and plans to make.

And as long as he kept himself busy, he didn’t have the time to fall apart.

Vlad changed into his ghost form and summoned two duplicates. They were only constructs, but they were capable of operating independently. Quite useful when he needed to be in several places at once.

He pointed at one duplicate. “Investigate that—” he grimaced in disgust, “—Nasty Burger. I want to know who is to blame for that explosion.”

Then he pointed at the other one. “Stay close to Daniel and keep him safe if any ghosts make an appearance.”

He didn’t really need to give orders out loud — his duplicates were still a part of him and mental commands would suffice — but he was having trouble finding the mental focus it required.

Both duplicates nodded obediently, turned invisible, and flew away.

Vlad sighed heavily, changing back to human form. Splitting his energy three-way was tiring to sustain for long, but he could cope. He could still feel the presence of his duplicates at the edges of his mind, and if he wanted to, he could easily shift his consciousness into one of these constructs, effectively swapping places with it.

It was reassuring to know that if anything happened, he could be at Daniel’s side in a moment.

But for now, he had to deal with all the legal issues that taking custody of the boy required. At least he could throw around enough money to hasten the process.

It was all his money was good for anyway.

Vlad dug his nails into his palms. He was one of the richest people in the country, but all that money couldn’t buy him what he truly wanted.

It couldn’t earn Maddie’s love, it couldn’t bring her back to life, and it certainly couldn’t save Daniel from his grief.

Danny had felt the invisible presence hovering close to him, but he didn’t have the energy to react to it. If Vlad wanted to keep an eye on him to make sure that Danny didn’t escape, then so be it.

The presence only dissipated when the real Vlad returned the next day.

“The doctors have given you a clean bill of health, so there is no need for you to remain in the hospital, Daniel,” Vlad said. “So gather your things — we’re leaving.”

“I don’t have anything,” Danny replied. Other than the clothes on his back, nothing in this room was really his.

“All the better. I’m sure you’re already sick of this dreary place.”

Danny didn’t respond, though in truth, he had barely even noticed his surroundings.

He allowed Vlad to lead him outside, ignoring the concerned looks the man was sending his way. He only reacted when his ghost sense activated right next to the limo Vlad had led him to.

“Don’t worry, little badger, it’s only my chauffeur,” Vlad tried to reassure. “I pay him to drive the car, not to fight.”

Danny probably should’ve questioned it, but it was hard to care about anything, so he simply climbed into the car. Even if this was some trap, it didn’t matter anymore.

Vlad climbed in after him, and the car started moving. Vlad was saying something to him, but try as he might, Danny just couldn’t focus on his words. He only woke up from his stupor when the car stopped and Vlad ushered him outside.

For a moment, Danny forgot how to breathe. They were right in front of FentonWorks.

“Why?” Danny rasped. “I thought—”

Wasn’t Vlad going to drag him away to Wisconsin?

Vlad looked down at him with a concerned expression on his face. “I have just told you, little badger: we can’t leave yet and I thought you would be more comfortable staying at home.”

…Home?

Danny silently stared at the building. Could he still call it his home when everyone who lived there was now dead because of him?

Vlad said something else, but Danny couldn’t quite register it. He felt a hand shake his shoulder and looked up at the man.

“Daniel, I asked whether you have the keys or if we need to phase through the door.”

Danny lethargically patted his pockets, then fished out the keys and raised them in silent offering. For a second, Vlad just stared at the keys, as if he couldn’t quite believe that Danny was handing them over without a fight.

But what would be the point of fighting now? Danny had already lost everything he cared about.

Vlad kept a hand on his shoulder as he unlocked the front door, and together they walked into the silent house. It looked exactly the same as it always had, but Danny still couldn’t shake off the feeling of wrongness.

It was too quiet. Too empty.

Too dead.

Danny walked around in a daze. It felt like a dream, just this side of unreal.

A nightmare that he couldn’t wake up from, no matter how hard he tried.

Eventually, Vlad’s voice filtered back into his ears. “Would you like something to eat? I doubt that hospital food had been particularly filling.”

Danny shook his head. The mere thought of eating something made him nauseous.

Vlad sighed and took out his cell phone. “Very well, but I’m still ordering some takeout, in case you change your mind. And if you’re not hungry… will you at least drink some water?”

Danny didn’t feel thirsty either, but at least it was something to do. He silently walked into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. As he slowly sipped it, his gaze fell on the staircase that led into the basement. A faint glow was visible from below, that familiar green of the ghost portal.

Almost against his will, Danny drifted towards it.

The lab was quiet and empty like the rest of the house, but it was a different kind of silence. The swirling portal — always moving, always glowing — made it seem a little more alive.

Ironic, considering it was a doorway to the realm of the dead.

Danny slowly stepped closer to the portal. Were his friends and family on the other side?

He didn’t know. Few people became ghosts after death.

So what happened to those who didn’t? Was there another kind of afterlife somewhere out there?

He didn’t know.

Would he ever see them again?

He didn’t know that either.

Danny was standing right next to the portal, completely lost in his thoughts, when a metal arm suddenly appeared out of the glowing green and grabbed him by the throat.

“Well-well-well, looks like today is my lucky day!” Skulker drawled as he stepped out of the portal. “I didn’t even need to hunt you down.”

A glowing blade jutted out of his arm.

“Any last words, whelp?”

Danny hung limply in his grip. He could’ve easily gone intangible or blasted Skulker away, but he just couldn’t muster the will to fight back. Everything felt so pointless…

A violently pink ecto-blast shattered the blade into pieces.

“Get away from him!” Vlad snarled.

“Plasmius!” Skulker stammered, immediately dropping Danny on the floor and taking a step back. “I was just—”

With a wordless growl of rage, Vlad slammed the hunter into the wall. “If you lay one finger on him again, I will rip you apart with my bare hands! Understood?!”

Skulker nodded frantically.

“From now on, anyone who tries to harm Daniel will have to deal with me!” Vlad announced.

And with those words, he tossed the ghost back into the portal.

He took a second to catch his breath, then turned back human. The feral rage was gone from his expression, replaced with concern. “That stupid oaf didn’t hurt you, did he?”

Danny silently rubbed his throat. What was he supposed to say to that?

Yes, but he’d had worse?

Yes, but it was his own fault for not fighting back?

Yes, but he deserved it?

“It’s fine,” he finally said.

It wasn’t. Nothing was ever going to be fine again.

Vlad didn’t look like he believed Danny, but he let the matter drop. “The word will spread around soon enough, but for now, I think we should close the portal. Perhaps even switch it off?”

“Switch it… off?” Danny repeated.

The thought had never even crossed his mind. The portal was such a huge part of his life, turning it off was unthinkable.

“It’s dangerous to leave the portal without anyone to keep an eye on it, unless you want to have another ecto-filtrator explosion on your hands. And without an easy way in, the ghosts won’t be able to attack this town anymore.”

…Vlad was right, wasn’t he? All the troubles in Amity Park had started with this portal.

The portal that Danny had activated.

Once again, everything was his fault.

“Do you know how to do this?”

Vlad nodded. “Of course. I have my own portal back home and the designs are quite similar.”

Danny stared at the portal. Turning it off… It was the right thing to do, wasn’t it?

So why then did it feel so wrong?

He felt a hand on his shoulder. “It’s not forever, my boy. This house and everything in it belongs to you. If you decide to reactivate the portal later, it’s your right. But surely you understand why we can’t leave it without supervision?”

Danny swallowed thickly. “…Alright.”

He silently watched as Vlad flipped various switches and pulled the plugs, until with a sharp flash of light, the portal closed, its constant hum going quiet.

The silence was deafening. It felt like the very heart of FentonWorks had stopped beating.

Danny clutched at his chest, his own heart aching at the sight. Suddenly, he felt like he couldn’t breathe.

“…Daniel?” He could barely hear Vlad’s concerned voice. “Little badger?”

He couldn’t stay here, in this dead basement of a dead home. He had to get out!

“Daniel!”

Danny transformed in a flare of light and flew through a wall, desperate to get away.

When Danny finally came to, the sunset sky greeted him. He was in ghost form, curled up on a rooftop in some part of the town that he couldn’t quite recognize.

There was also a blanket wrapped around him. Danny rubbed the fabric between his fingers, wondering distantly why it looked so familiar: white on one side, red on the other, thin and oddly ethereal.

Where did he get this thing? What was he doing here?

Where was here anyway?

“Are you back with me, little badger?” Vlad’s voice called from behind him.

Danny slowly turned around and blinked in confusion. Vlad was in ghost form as well, though his cape was missing.

He looked down at the blanket. Well, that answered one question.

“Where are we?” Danny asked. “Why—?”

He coughed, barely able to get the words out. His throat hurt and his mouth felt drier than a desert.

“You had a panic attack, Daniel. I don’t think you even knew where you were going,” Vlad explained. “Are you feeling any better?”

Danny slowly uncurled and hovered in the air, unsure if his legs would support him otherwise. “…Tired.”

“Then how about we get you back home and you can try to sleep a little?”

Danny flinched back and rapidly shook his head. “No. Not— Not there.”

That place wasn’t his home. Not anymore.

Not without the people who lived there.

“Very well. I have a room booked in a hotel and it’s large enough to accommodate us both. Would that work?”

“Just… not there,” Danny choked out.

Vlad nodded. “Then hotel it is.”

Daniel had been silent on the way to the hotel. He once again refused the offer of food, then he simply fell on the bed and stared quietly at the wall.

It was unnerving to see. This silence, this… obedience was simply wrong.

The boy was supposed to fight Vlad every step of the way, constantly making irritating quips and brimming with energy. He wasn’t supposed to be this quiet, empty shell that didn’t even struggle against the enemy holding him by the throat!

Vlad slumped on the couch with a heavy sigh. He had no idea what to do. No idea how to help.

He wasn’t even sure if taking Daniel away from Amity Park was the best choice. But if the boy refused to even stay in his own home…

Vlad sighed again. He just had to hope that with enough time, Daniel would recover.

(He had to, hadn’t he? He was the only person who still mattered to Vlad.)

But he knew it was going to get worse before it had a chance to get better.

Tomorrow was the funeral.

It didn’t feel real.

Danny watched the coffins being lowered into the ground, and it still didn’t feel real.

It was as if at any moment his friends and family were going to jump out, revealing this all to be just an elaborate prank. Just a cruel trick of some malevolent ghost.

Please, let it be just a trick.

A clump of dirt was thrown down, scattering across a coffin lid. Then another and another and another…

This— this really was happening, wasn’t it?

His vision blurred, and Danny swiped a shaking hand across his eyes, swallowing his tears. He had no right to cry when it was his fault that everyone he cared about was dead.

Soon — far too soon — it was over. All that remained of his friends and family were mounds of dirt and cold gravestones.

Danny wanted to scream.

Sam was supposed to organize protests and make petitions and force her awful ultra-recyclo-vegetarian food on everyone and fight against injustice in every form.

Tucker was supposed to gush about videogames and hit on every girl that paid even a second of attention to him and be a steady, reliant rock in every storm.

Jazz was supposed to ramble about psychoanalysis and shove her nose where it didn’t belong and always try to help in her own awkward way.

His parents were supposed to yell about ghosts and chase him around with half-baked inventions and love him no matter what.

They weren’t supposed lie in the cold ground because Danny couldn’t save them!

“Danny?” a vaguely familiar voice cut through the haze of guilt.

He looked up and saw Maurice Foley standing in front of him.

Danny had met Tucker’s father plenty of times before, but he could barely recognize the man now. Usually cheerful and energetic, he looked like a shadow of his former self, as if he had aged a decade in a span of a few days.

Danny couldn’t force a single word out. What was he supposed to say to the man whose son was now dead because of him?

“I’m glad you’re out of the hospital,” Mr. Foley said. “I’m— I’m sorry I didn’t come to check on you. You were Tucker’s best friend and I—”

His voice cracked, as if he could barely say his son’s name.

“I’m sure Daniel doesn’t blame you, Mr. Foley,” Vlad interrupted smoothly. “You had a lot to deal with.”

“I still should’ve—” Mr. Foley reached into his pocket and offered a scrap of paper. “Here. My phone number. If— if you ever need anything—”

A harsh sob interrupted his words. His shoulders shook as he tried to get a hold of himself.

Vlad took the paper when Danny didn’t. “Thank you. Your offer is much appreciated.”

Mr. Foley gave him a jerky nod and left, unable to hide his tears anymore.

“That was kind of him,” Vlad said contemplatively and offered the paper to Danny.

“Why?” Danny whispered, still unable to take it. “Why did he—”

He just couldn’t understand.

“Because he cares. He said it himself: you were his son’s best friend.”

“…And it’s my fault that he’s dead.”

“No, it wasn’t!” Vlad hissed and Danny saw a glimpse of red in his eyes. “It was the fault of those minimal-wage idiots who left explosive equipment unattended! And trust me, once I find out who exactly—”

“Danny?”

Another voice interrupted his rant, and Vlad immediately went silent, schooling his expression.

“Valerie?” Danny greeted in confusion.

Why was she here? They barely counted as friends.

“How are you holding up?” Valerie asked softly. She looked guilty for some reason.

Danny opened his mouth, then closed it. How was he even supposed to reply to that?

Valerie cringed. “Sorry, dumb question. And… you probably don’t want to deal with anyone right now. It’s just— if you ever need to talk or— or anything, really, you can call me, okay?”

She reached out, hesitated for a moment, then hugged him awkwardly.

“Danny, I swear,” she whispered into his ear, “I’ll find that ghost boy and make him pay! I know this was all his fault and once I get my hands on him—”

“Miss Gray!” Vlad snapped. “This is neither the time nor the place for this!”

Valerie flinched and immediately backed off. “I— I’m sorry, Mr.—”

Vlad sneered down at her. “Masters. Daniel’s legal guardian. And I do not appreciate your attitude.”

“It’s okay,” Danny said.

Valerie wasn’t wrong, after all, was she? Everything really was his fault.

Vlad didn’t seem to agree. He squeezed Danny’s shoulder and pulled him closer, away from Valerie. “Goodbye, Miss Gray.”

“Ignore her, Daniel,” Vlad murmured once she left. “She is just a stupid, hateful little girl who understands absolutely nothing. I will shut down her gear and she won’t be a threat to you anymore.”

“Don’t,” Danny rasped.

Vlad raised an eyebrow. “And why not? You know she will keep hunting you otherwise. Do you really want to fight her again?”

Fight? No, Danny didn’t think he had it in him to continue fighting. (He had nothing left to fight for.)

“She won’t find me in Wisconsin. And Amity still needs the Red Huntress.”

Valerie still needed the Red Huntress.

“I have already shut down the portal,” Vlad pointed out, unconvinced.

“…Please.”

Vlad sighed heavily. “Oh, alright. But if she ever tries anything—”

“Thank you.”

Vlad stood at the entrance to FentonWorks and silently watched as the movers he had hired carried various boxes into their truck. Only two of these boxes contained Daniel’s things, the rest were all inventions from the lab that Vlad had gathered and packed himself.

While none of these devices were as dangerous as the portal (he hoped), Vlad still didn’t want to leave them without supervision. Anything his former friend had created had the potential to explode or go horribly awry.

He had expected Daniel to fight him on this, but the boy remained silent, barely reacting to anything.

Vlad could only hope that the change of scenery would manage to shake the boy out of this apathy. Daniel had suffered a terrible tragedy, but he was only fourteen. He still had his whole life ahead.

He just had to move forward and find something worth living for.

He had to.

Because if he didn’t… then Vlad had nothing left to live for either.

Chapter Text

It had been months. Long, exhausting months, where every day felt like slogging through a mire with no end in sight.

And Daniel wasn’t getting better.

Vlad downed a glass of whiskey and immediately poured himself another. There wasn’t enough left to fill the glass completely, so he tossed the empty bottle over his shoulder. He ignored the sound of it shattering on the marble floor and grabbed a second one.

He opened the bottle with a small ecto-blast and added more whiskey to his glass. Alcohol didn’t work on him all too well due to his unique biology, but Vlad was determined to get drunk.

It wasn’t like there was much else for him to do other than wallow in his own misery.

In that regard, Vlad wasn’t much different from his charge. Even on his good days, Daniel was simply going through the motions. On his bad days, he would just lie in bed and stare at the ceiling, refusing to move or speak.

Vlad knocked back another glass.

He had tried everything he could think of to cheer the boy up, but nothing had worked. Nothing interested him anymore.

He had eventually called Maurice Foley and arranged a meeting, but, if anything, seeing his friend’s father again had only made things worse. Daniel still blamed himself too much to accept any help from the man.

Vlad had even considered bringing in Valerie Gray, but the girl was getting more and more obsessed with hunting down Phantom, and he honestly feared for Daniel’s safety around her. Getting attacked by a supposed friend wasn’t going to help him recover in any way.

He had finally suggested therapy, but Daniel had recoiled from him, muttering something about specters, and refused to even consider it. He had to let the matter drop, afraid that pushing too far would only drive the boy away.

As for Vlad himself…

He had tried to keep himself busy with work, but it was hard to care about stocks and business meetings. His company was losing money, but what did it matter? It wasn’t like money could solve anything.

He had tried to work in his lab — something he used to enjoy — but he kept drawing a blank, unable to come up with any new ideas. Everything he had done, all his inventions had been born from his desire to one-up his former friend.

Now Jack was dead and there was no reason for him to continue.

The only thing that had brought him some twisted joy during these months was bankrupting the Nasty Burger and ruining the lives of those pathetic employees that had run like rats and left the dangerous equipment unattended, but even that didn’t last long. Taking his petty revenge couldn’t bring back the lives already lost.

Only now was he realizing how pointless revenge truly was.

He couldn’t even bother to look for the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady anymore. He had intended to find and disintegrate them both, but those vermin had made themselves scarce, and Vlad just couldn’t muster the energy to keep searching.

Other than some momentary satisfaction, destroying them wouldn’t really help, would it?

Vlad reached to pour himself more whiskey, only to find the bottle empty once again. With a sudden flash of rage, he threw the bottle at the wall, watching it shatter into dozens of pieces.

“When are you going to come back?!” he shouted at the empty room. “Amity Park is drenched in ecto-energy and it’s been more than enough time for ghosts to form! So what the fuck is taking you all so long?!”

He threw his glass next, breaking it as well.

“Come on! Manson, Foley, you’ve always stuck at Daniel’s side, no matter what happened! Are you seriously going to let a tiny thing like death stop you?! Maddie, Jack, you’ve always been so obsessed with ghosts, surely you wouldn’t miss this opportunity?!”

There was no reply and Vlad slumped down, the burst of energy gone as quickly as it appeared.

In truth, he had no idea why some people became ghosts after death while others didn’t. There were some common factors — strong obsessions and environment rich in ecto-energy seemed to be the most important — but there was simply too little information to go on.

He had set up cameras and scanners in the ruins of the Nasty Burger and in FentonWorks that would alert him if Daniel’s friends and family had returned as ghosts. He had instructed all his underlings to immediately let him know if they made an appearance in the Ghost Zone.

And there was still nothing.

He looked at the old photo of himself with his then-friends that he had once torn in half in spiteful resentment. He had carefully glued it together, but reality couldn’t be fixed so easily.

Maddie and Jack were still gone.

“Come on…” Vlad whispered. “Don’t you see how much Daniel misses you? Please, just come back…”

Next morning, tired and hangover, Vlad swept up the broken glass. Granted, he could’ve simply left it for the maids to clean, but it felt too embarrassing to let anyone see the evidence of his drunken binge.

He should’ve had better self-control than this.

The glass shards and the dried splatters of alcohol didn’t take all that long to remove, and once he was done with the clean-up, Vlad felt a little less miserable.

He had been trying so hard to get Daniel to do something constructive with his time… Maybe he should start taking his own advice.

Vlad had settled in his office, trying to make sense of the financial reports he had been neglecting, when the door suddenly slammed open. The loud noise made him jump and light up an ecto-blast in hand, ready to attack whichever enemy had broken in—

Except there was no enemy there.

“…Daniel?” Vlad closed his fist, reabsorbing the energy. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong!” the boy shouted, looking more alive than he had in months. He ran towards Vlad and slammed his hands on the desk with a wild grin. “I can’t believe it took me so long to realize it!”

It was so different from his usual demeanor, Vlad didn’t know whether he should be happy or concerned. “Realize what? I don’t understand what you are saying, Daniel.”

The boy laughed. “Desiree! Vlad, Desiree can grant wishes! I just need to find her, make a wish, and she will bring everyone back! You have a portal here, right? Just let me use it and—”

“…No, Daniel,” Vlad interrupted. He tried to keep his voice level, even though his heart was breaking. “It won’t work.”

Daniel stumbled mid-word, then rapidly shook his head. “No-no-no-no, of course, it will! I know Desiree is my enemy, but there’s gotta be a way to convince her to help! Or make some deal! There has to be something she wants!”

“Daniel…”

The boy was starting to tremble. “I’ll let her stay in human world and won’t try to catch her again. Will that work? Or revenge! She can beat me up if she wants to, I won’t fight back!”

“Daniel.”

“Or— or— or— she’ll work for you, right? You can convince her, pay her— You’ve hired Skulker, you can hire her too!” Daniel grabbed his wrist, his eyes wide and desperate. “Vlad, please! I— I know that you don’t care about dad or Jazz or Sam or Tucker, but you still care about mom, right? You want to bring her back, right?!”

“Daniel!” Vlad snapped sharply and phased out of his grip.

He didn’t want to do this, didn’t want to dash all his hopes, but he couldn’t keep the truth from the boy.

“Do you think I haven’t already tried? I tried to make a deal, offered her anything I could think of… She can’t do this, Daniel. She just can’t.”

“Yes, she can!” Daniel insisted desperately. “She rewrote the past before! Made it so that I have never gotten my powers!”

“And how long did this new reality last before it was unmade? A few hours? A day?” Vlad pointed out. He sighed heavily. “Desiree isn’t some all-powerful goddess. She’s just a ghost with some unique abilities. If the wish is small enough, she can make it stick. But rewinding time? Resurrecting people? She won’t be able to make it last. And I— I don’t think you would want to bring everyone back just to have them die mere hours later.”

“No!” Daniel shouted. “I don’t believe you! I’ll find Desiree myself! It’ll work! I’ll— I’ll show you!”

He transformed in a flash of light and phased through the floor. Vlad cursed under his breath and quickly followed after him.

As he expected, the boy was in his lab, trying to pry open the doors of his portal.

“Daniel…” Vlad called hesitantly and immediately had to dodge a green beam of energy.

“Don’t try to stop me, fruitloop!” Daniel snapped.

There was no way to convince him otherwise, was there?

“I see that you’re not going to listen to me. Very well,” Vlad finally conceded. “I’ll open the portal and show you where to find Desiree.”

Daniel glared at him suspiciously, but at least he didn’t try to shoot him again.

Vlad quickly input the code and the doors opened, revealing the glowing green of the Ghost Zone.

Daniel marched in without hesitation. “It’ll work. It has to.”

Just a few months ago, Vlad had wanted for Daniel to be more like him. And now, here the boy was, retracing his own steps to Desiree’s lair, trying to make the same wish Vlad had.

Fate had a sick sense of humor.

“What do you want from me now, Plasmius?” the ghostly genie grumbled when she saw him. “I thought you already—”

Daniel shoved him aside. “I want to make a wish, Desiree.”

She crossed her arms and frowned at him. “You have a lot of nerve to show up on my doorstep and make demands, ghost boy. After all the times you have defeated me and thrown me back into the Ghost Zone, give me a single reason I should fulfill your wish without twisting it!”

“Because I’m telling you to,” Vlad interrupted.

Desiree narrowed her eyes. “If it’s going to be the same—”

“I wish that Samantha Manson, Tucker Foley, Jasmine Fenton, Madeline Fenton, Jack Fenton, and William Lancer were alive again!” Daniel shouted.

Desiree’s expression contorted into a grimace. She curled her hands into fists, trying to stifle the pink smoke pouring from them. “So— so have you— wished it—”

She ground her teeth and clamped her hands over her mouth, trying to silence herself. The smoke writhed like a living thing and forced her hands away.

“So have—”

“Daniel, time!”

The boy gasped. “And stayed alive for the rest of their natural lifespan!” he added quickly.

Desiree screamed in pain as the creeping smoke suddenly turned on her. It coiled around her like pink serpents and burrowed under her skin leaving bleeding wounds behind.

Daniel stared in horror at the wounds that slowly stitched themselves back together. “What— what happened?”

Desiree’s voice was rough when she spoke, “This is what happens when I can’t fulfill a wish. Didn’t Plasmius tell you?”

“I told Daniel it was impossible, but he didn’t listen.”

The boy wrapped his arms around himself, starting to shake a little. “It’s… impossible? It’s really impossible?”

Desiree looked at him with none of the anger Vlad was expecting. She just looked exhausted. “Do you really think that you’re the first person who came to me wishing to turn back time and bring someone back? I can’t do that. I don’t have this kind of power.”

“Not even when everyone was wishing upon the stars during that meteor shower?”

Desiree shook her head, looking genuinely apologetic. “Even at the top of my power, I couldn’t warp reality permanently. If that friend of yours hadn’t taken back her wish, it would’ve fallen apart on its own.”

“Oh… I’m sorry I bothered you…” Daniel whispered.

It was as if all energy had been sapped from the boy. His voice was as broken and lifeless as it had been back in that hospital.

Daniel looked up at him with dull eyes. “You were right, Vlad. I’m sorry I didn’t listen…”

Vlad put one arm around his shoulders, wrapping his cape around the boy. “Let’s just go home, little badger.”

How could he blame Daniel for not trusting him after everything he had done? For trying to do everything possible to bring those he loved back? He just wished it hadn’t caused the boy so much pain.

He just wished he knew how to help.

Chapter Text

The threads of time stretched out into eternity, tangled and intertwined into an infinite web of possibilities. A single timeline stood out from the tapestry, one so different from all the others, only the chain of the most unlikely events had made it possible.

So many things had to fall in a row… Take any one out, and this timeline would simply merge with the others: the ones where the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady didn’t damage the Nasty Burger as badly or where proper precautions were taken to secure the equipment inside; the ones where Danny didn’t cheat or where he confessed before the test, not after it; the ones where Mr. Lancer chose to call the Fentons instead of gathering a meeting or picked a different place for it; the ones where everyone left the ruins just slightly earlier…

All those timelines wouldn’t differ for long, fusing back into a single future.

In that future, Danny Phantom would keep fighting malicious ghosts with his friends and sister’s support, Vlad Masters would keep plotting the demise of his former friend, and Jack and Maddie Fenton would keep creating new inventions.

In that future, the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep would be opened and Pariah Dark would walk free. Danny Phantom would join forces with his enemies, steal the Ecto-Skeleton his parents had created that enhanced his power hundredfold, and force Pariah back into the enchanted coffin, where he would be imprisoned once more.

And when years later the sarcophagus shattered, no longer able to contain the King of All Ghosts, Danny would have enough power and allies with the brilliance of his parents at his side to defeat Pariah Dark once and for all.

But that wasn’t the timeline Clockwork was looking at.

In this timeline, the explosion claimed six lives and irreparably damaged many more.

In this timeline, Danny Fenton lost the will to live and took his own life, leaving Vlad Masters with nothing to live for either.

In this timeline, when Pariah Dark broke free, there was no one left to oppose him.

Oh, many had tried — the Red Huntress, various government agencies, other ghosts — but it was all for naught. And the two worlds suffered under the tyrannical rule of the Ghost King for the rest of eternity.

“Do you see it now, Watcher?” Clockwork asked. “This timeline is doomed.”

“Incorrect,” multiple voices hissed in a discordant chorus, echoing from everywhere and nowhere at once.

Clockwork turned around to look at his companion — a vaguely humanoid ghost whose entire head was one giant eyeball as was typical for the Observants. But while their overall shape and attire were similar to their brethren, there was one key difference: instead of a single iris and pupil, dozens of them were drifting across the surface of their eye, shifting and merging and splitting apart without rhyme or reason.

That and the sheer level of power Watcher radiated.

“You know the rules, Clockwork. We cannot allow you to destroy an entire timeline as long as sapient life still remains there.”

Watcher’s primary eye stared at the screen, but several secondary eyes merged together and fixated on Clockwork with laser focus. Even their fellow Observants found it unnerving to be pinned beneath Watcher’s gaze, but Clockwork was long used to their quirks.

He pointed at the viewscreen with his staff. “You call that life? Being enslaved to a monster? Oblivion would be a mercy.”

“It is the law laid down by the first king. The council cannot act against it, unless the current king decrees otherwise.”

And unfortunately for them, the current king was a monster.

While Pariah Dark had been defeated and imprisoned, he had not been dethroned. There was no one else who could give the Observants new orders in his stead.

And they were incapable of acting against orders.

It wasn’t for lack of desire, but unlike regular ghosts, spirits like them were slaves to their own nature. Clockwork was bound to time, twisting and changing with its flow. The Observants were embodiments of law, forced to follow it to the letter whether they wanted to or not.

Fortunately, Clockwork didn’t need the council’s permission to use his powers. While any large-scale changes to the timeline would be detected and swiftly stopped, as long as he was sufficiently subtle—

“This conversation is over,” Watcher stated, the fractured chorus of their voice filling the entire Clock Tower. “Leave that timeline alone, Clockwork. In the state it is now, it doesn’t require your interference.”

“And if anything changes?”

“Then the council will reassess the situation. Until then,” Watcher’s secondary eyes disappeared one by one as they deliberately limited their vision, turning a blind eye to anything Clockwork might do, “I do not wish to see any meddling from you. Understood?”

Clockwork smirked. They both knew how to play this game and plausible deniability was such a wonderful thing. “Understood. I promise that you won’t see anything.”

Time out.

After their little trip to the Ghost Zone had ended exactly the way Vlad had expected, Daniel had fallen back into the state of complete apathy that Vlad wasn’t able to shake him out of. It felt like everything he had done in his attempts to help the boy had only made things worse, and Vlad found himself reaching for the bottle once more.

But before he could pour himself the first glass, a distant explosion echoed from below.

Vlad dropped the whiskey and quickly transformed into ghost form. That sounded like it came from his lab!

He quickly flew in and found his lab to be a complete mess. Broken metal parts were strewn everywhere, along with a generous coating of ectoplasm. What in the world—

Daniel poked his head through the wall, looking slightly more animated than usual. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“I’m wondering that myself,” Vlad replied.

He glanced at the portal. The doors were still closed, so it couldn’t be the result of some ghost breaking in. And he highly doubted that Daniel had anything to do with this mess: the boy wasn’t in the right state of mind for any mischief.

He floated towards the security camera installed in the corner. It seemed to be intact, so perhaps the footage would give him some answers.

After checking the recordings, Vlad had found the culprit. One of the inventions he had brought from FentonWorks had exploded and caused a chain reaction among the rest.

Vlad rubbed his temples in frustration. This was what he got for ignoring the devices for so long. The entire reason he had brought everything here was to avoid something like this!

Well, there was nothing he could do about it now, other than clean up and make sure that nothing else exploded in the future. It wasn’t a job Vlad could trust to anyone else, so he told Daniel to leave the lab, created several duplicates, and set to work.

When Vlad told him to leave the lab, Danny immediately complied. Being there felt too much like he was back home with his parents.

Something that would never happen again.

He tried to get back to his room, but the layout of the castle was still confusing to him, so he ended up in the library instead. Though it wasn’t like it mattered where he stayed…

Danny floated towards the comfy reading corner and curled in the armchair, turning back human. Maybe he should sleep again… He was tired of being awake.

He was starting to drift off when a muffled thump woke him up. Danny uncurled and looked around, trying to figure out what it was.

There was a book lying open on the floor.

Danny rubbed his eyes. Did it fall from the shelf? But it seemed pretty far from the closest one.

He stood up and slowly approached the book. It was glowing faintly, and Danny distantly recalled Vlad saying that his library had some books from the Ghost Zone. Maybe the book had floated away from the shelf on its own.

He picked it up, his gaze automatically flitting over the open pages, when something caught his attention.

‘Spirits are far more powerful than ordinary ghosts.’

Weren’t spirits and ghosts the same thing? And… far more powerful? What if—

Danny shook his head, banishing the half-formed thought from his mind. No, that— that was stupid. He couldn’t get his hopes up. Not again.

And yet, he couldn’t put the book away either.

He settled back in the armchair, flipped through several pages, and started to read from the beginning.

While his duplicates sorted through garbage, picking out anything useful and throwing the rest into an incinerator, Vlad dug out the Fentons’ research journals. He had intended to go through all the notes and inventions and catalogue everything, he just… never did.

If not for this explosion, the devices would’ve probably kept collecting dust in his lab.

Well, no time like the present.

Vlad picked up the cleanest journal — nothing had escaped the ectoplasmic mess unscathed — and flipped it open, trying to see if any of the schematics there resembled a still intact device. Or at least a partially intact one, he wasn’t picky.

At the end of the journal, he finally noticed something familiar. He floated towards a large metal hoop that had several glowing shards jutting out of it and compared it to the journal.

The so-called Fenton Ghost Catcher was supposed to be filled by those shards entirely, forming a complex pattern that resembled dreamcatcher, but it seemed to be completely broken.

Vlad read the notes, trying to figure out what this device was meant for and how likely it was to explode in his face. Apparently, the Ghost Catcher was intended to separate ectoplasm from normal matter, which, he guessed, could be used to eject a ghost that overshadowed a human.

Could be useful, he supposed, though he wasn’t sure he wanted to recreate the device. He shuddered to think what it might do to a halfa.

He was ready to close the journal and grab another one, when the last few lines caught his attention. Maddie’s neat handwriting detailed possible improvements for the device that she had planned — and never got the chance to — work on. Additional filters, finer controls — all to make it possible to not just separate ectoplasm in full, but to sift it into different fractions.

And one last remark at the very end: the possibility of using it to remove the ‘evil’ from ghosts.

Vlad silently stared at the Ghost Catcher. Maddie’s prejudices aside, could it really be used to manipulate not just the physical make-up of a ghost, but their mental state as well?

And if it could… Would it work on half-ghosts?

No matter how much Vlad wanted to deny it, Daniel was still drowning in grief and guilt. If he could just get rid of them…

For the first time in months, Vlad felt something like hope.

According to the author of this book, spirits and ghosts were not the same. Both species lived in the Ghost Zone and held a lot of similarities in their powers and appearances, but they were still different types of entities.

Ghosts were created when the soul of a dead human or animal lingered behind instead of going into the afterlife proper. If it managed to absorb enough ambient energy, it would transform into a ghost core that manifested in the Ghost Zone, drawing in ectoplasm until a body could be created from it.

Spirits were created though a similar process, but they had never been alive in the first place. Or, perhaps, they were alive in a different sense. They were beings that were born from different elements and concepts — and had incredible control over them as a result.

There were many different spirits, each with their own domain: fire, ice, weather, plants, dreams…

Time.

Clockwork, the Master of Time, was rumored to be one of the most powerful spirits in existence who knew everything and could twist time itself to his will. Desiree couldn’t fulfill his wish because she was just a ghost, and thus not powerful enough. Would Clockwork be able to help him?

Danny had no idea where to find Clockwork or how to convince him to turn back time and bring his loved ones back, but he had to at least try. He would never be able to live with himself otherwise.

In the domain of time, among the ceaseless sound of ticking clocks, Clockwork watched the timeline shift before his eyes.

The changes he had made while Watcher averted their gaze were so small and insignificant — a wire torn here, a book pushed there — but that was all he needed to set in motion the chain of events that would soon cascade into a new future.

A hurricane born from the flutter of a butterfly wing.

Time in.

Chapter Text

The next day, Danny was quietly picking through his breakfast, when he finally gathered enough courage to ask, “Have you ever met a spirit?”

Vlad looked up from a journal he was reading (it was the same kind of journal Danny remembered his parents writing in). “Spirit?” he repeated. “What brought this on, Daniel?”

Danny shrugged, pretending that the answer didn’t matter to him. “I got lost and knocked over a book in the library. There was something about spirits being different from ghosts in it.”

Vlad nodded. “They are, which is why I have never sought them out. I did have a few run-ins with various elementals — and the Observants, who are as closer to a government as the Ghost Zone has — but that’s about it. Ghosts think like humans, which makes them easy to predict and manipulate. Spirits are just too different. And too dangerous.”

“I see…” Danny muttered, outwardly unbothered, but inside he was reeling from possibilities.

If Vlad had never met Clockwork and never asked him for help, then he hadn’t gotten a ‘no’ in reply.

Which meant, Danny still had a chance.

After breakfast, Vlad headed back to the lab, but he was surprised to see Daniel following after him.

“Is there anything I can help you with?” Vlad asked.

The boy looked awkward and fidgety, refusing to meet his eyes. “I— I just—” He took a deep breath. “Can I go to the Ghost Zone?”

Vlad blinked in surprise. That wasn’t a question he had been expecting. “Why?”

Daniel shrugged, still staring at the floor. “I guess after being there again I realized how much I missed it.”

Vlad supposed it made some sense. And he was honestly just glad to see the boy show some emotion. “Of course. I can show you around.”

“Alone,” Daniel interrupted.

Vlad frowned. “You have made plenty of enemies there.”

“Who you have threatened to stay away from me,” Daniel argued. “I’ve beaten them all before anyway. And if anything happens, I can just turn human. Humans are ghosts in there.”

“It only means that you can pass through objects, not through ecto-blasts,” Vlad pointed out.

“Please, I— I need this.”

Vlad sighed. He loathed the idea of letting Daniel traipse through the Ghost Zone on his own — he still remembered how the boy refused to fight back against Skulker — but aside from that disaster with Desiree, this was the first time he had shown interest in anything. How could Vlad refuse him?

“Alright,” he conceded. “But I have conditions.”

He opened the storage where he kept his own inventions and grabbed a device that somewhat resembled a watch. It was a metal bracelet with an electronic screen and a button on one side. He pressed it and the screen activated, showing a simple arrow with a number written under it.

“Consider it a compass,” Vlad explained, showing the screen to Daniel. “The arrow always points towards the portal and the number shows the distance towards it. You don’t have the same experience navigating the Ghost Zone that I do, and I don’t want you getting lost in there.”

He had used this compass himself when he had only started to explore the Ghost Zone. The device also had a tracker in it, which he had previously used to gather additional data — and could now use to find the boy if necessary — but he wasn’t going to tell Daniel that.

“I will let you go to the Ghost Zone on your own, so long as you keep the compass on you at all times, don’t get into pointless fights, and be back in time for dinner. Is this acceptable?”

Daniel immediately grabbed the device and locked it around his left wrist. “Deal.”

“Just… be safe out there, alright?” Vlad said, opening the doorway.

Daniel gave him a tiny smile. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

It was the first real smile he had in months.

Danny felt a little bad for lying, but this was something he had to do alone. If spirits were really as dangerous as Vlad said, he doubted he would’ve been allowed to search for one. And he really didn’t want to fight Vlad on this.

It was his fault that everyone he loved was gone. He had to fix it on his own.

Danny stared at the wide expanse of murky green. Now, if only he knew where to start… Picking a direction at random, he flew forward.

He wasn’t sure how long he had been flying through the empty nothingness when a familiar sound reached his ears. Danny paused and looked at the motorcycle speeding in the distance. Apparently, the ghost had noticed him too: he changed direction and raced towards him.

Once he got close enough, Johnny 13 pulled a sharp turn and stopped, raising his hand in greeting. “Hey, kid.”

Danny frowned at him. Johnny was hardly the most malicious of his enemies, but he was still an enemy. “Do you want a fight?”

The ghostly biker raised his hands in surrender. “Nope, definitely not! And even if I wanted to, Plasmius said you’re off-limits, and I don’t want to piss him off. I just—” He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. “I heard what happened to you and— Damn, I’m no good with words, but I’m really sorry you had to go through this.”

Danny looked away. “Yeah, me too…”

“Anyway!” the ghost continued. “I know we were enemies and all that, but if you need to talk or something—”

“Thank you.” Danny offered his hand. “Friends? Or at least ‘not enemies’?”

Johnny shook his hand with a crooked grin. “Not enemies.”

His shadow wavered with a distant growl. Johnny rolled his eyes and lightly kicked it. “Oh, be quiet, you.” Then he turned his attention back to Danny. “So, any reason you came here? I know you live in the human world.”

“I’m looking for something,” Danny admitted. Actually… “Maybe you could help me?”

Shadow rose into the air, taking solid form. It hovered protectively over its host and bared its fangs at Danny.

Johnny leaned against it with his arms crossed. “That depends on what exactly you want. Kitty won’t be happy if I get into something dangerous on our date night.”

Danny shook his head. “No, nothing dangerous. I just want some information.”

“Don’t expect much, ‘cause I’ve never even finished high school, but sure. Ask away.”

“Have you ever heard of someone named ‘Clockwork’?”

The ghost shrugged. “Yeah, who hasn’t heard of him?”

Danny gasped in excitement. “Really?! Can you tell me something about him? Anything?!”

Johnny scratched the back of his head. “I know about as much as the next guy. Clockwork is a spirit, and us, regular ghosts, don’t really hang out with that crowd. I heard that he’s the Master of Time and he’s supposed to be really powerful, but that’s about it. It’s all just rumors anyway, ‘cause if anyone’s ever met him, they sure ain’t talking.”

“Oh… Is there someone who could know more?” Danny asked.

“Looking for him sounds like a really bad idea to me, but if you’re sure…” Johnny thought for a moment. “I guess you could ask the Ghost Writer? He’s an okay guy, kinda nerdy. And his lair is also a library, so there might be some info in there. Anyone is welcome, as long as you play nice and don’t damage his books.”

“You went to a library?” Danny asked incredulously.

“Hey! I can read, you know!” Johnny huffed in offense. “…Okay, fine. Kitty is the one who likes that place, I’m just the driver.” He shooed Shadow away and patted his bike. “Hop on, kid, I’ll show you the way.”

The Ghost Writer turned out to be friendly enough, if not particularly enthusiastic. “You are welcome to peruse my collection, but looking for spirits is a fool’s errand. And… someone like Clockwork? You will not find him unless he wants to be found.”

“I still have to try,” Danny disagreed.

The Ghost Writer frowned at him. “Why? Spirits are dangerous. I know you fancy yourself a hero, but what reason do you have to court disaster?”

Danny looked away. “It’s… personal.”

“Oh, I see. You wish to turn back time, don’t you?”

Danny flinched. “How do you—”

The ghost waved his hand dismissively. “It’s not that hard to guess. Rumors spread quickly through the Ghost Zone. But you should prepare yourself for a disappointment. Even if you do find Clockwork and even if by some miracle you manage to convince him to help, he might not be able to do what you want. After all, reality warping powers always come with restrictions. Take me for example: I can turn my writings into reality, but only for a very limited time. Desiree has similar issues with the wishes she grants. Everything fades in the end.”

“I— I know,” Danny acknowledged. He wasn’t likely to forget that any time soon. “But both of you are ghosts, right? And spirits are supposed to be much stronger.”

“Stronger doesn’t mean omnipotent,” the Ghost Writer pointed out. “I don’t know what rules the spirits play by, but there have to be limits to what they are capable of.”

Danny bit his lip, refusing to let the disappointment stifle the fragile light of his newfound hope. “I know, but I have to try. I’ll never forgive myself if I lose this chance.”

The Ghost Writer threw his hands in the air. “Fine, do whatever you want! But if you lose the remaining half of your life, I’m reserving the right to say ‘I told you so’!”

Daniel had returned late, but at least he wasn’t injured.

“Sorry, I didn’t have a watch on me and I kinda lost track of time,” he said sheepishly.

“An oversight for sure,” Vlad acknowledged, trying not to show how worried he really was. He had been ready to follow the tracker and retrieve the boy himself. “But was your trip successful at least?”

“I think I’ve made some friends?” Daniel said, a little unsurely. “Johnny 13 and the Ghost Writer.”

Vlad raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Well, we talked and didn’t fight? And the Ghost Writer let me use his library.”

“Yes, I have visited it myself plenty of times. All the books I have about the Ghost Zone I have obtained from him.”

The Ghost Writer didn’t just collect books and write his own, he also made copies for sale, and Vlad was quite happy to trade with him.

He was a little surprised that Daniel ended up in the library when he hadn’t shown much interest in books before, but whatever worked. The Ghost Writer was a reasonable man, he shouldn’t pose a threat to Daniel.

That uncouth biker, on the other hand, was hardly what Vlad would consider a respectable company, but as long as he behaved himself…

“Well, I’m glad you’re socializing,” Vlad finally said.

“Then… Can I go back tomorrow?”

Vlad still wasn’t sure this was entirely safe, but this was the first time Daniel had regained some semblance of his former self, and Vlad didn’t have the heart to put a stop to it.

“Same rules apply. And I’m going to add a watch to that compass, so don’t be late again.” Vlad thought for a moment. Perhaps a show of trust and a little more freedom would be good for the boy? “If you behave, I’ll even give you the code to the portal.”

“Really? Thank you!”

And then Daniel hugged him.

Vlad froze in shock. The boy had always kept his distance before. (When was the last time anyone hugged him?)

Before he could figure out how to react, Daniel let him go, stammered something in clear embarrassment, and ran away.

Well, this was… an unexpected development.

Vlad glanced at the broken Ghost Catcher. He would continue working on it, just in case, but maybe…

Maybe he wouldn’t need it after all.

Maybe Daniel was finally starting to recover.

“The boy is stubborn. He might find his way into your domain,” the sibilant voices hissed, rising and falling in pitch with every word.

Clockwork didn’t look away from the viewscreen, but he could feel Watcher’s heavy gaze on his back. “If he does, I cannot bar him from entry. That is also the law. Everyone has a right to an audience with me, so long as they put in the work to find my tower.”

That wasn’t the full truth and they both knew it. While Clockwork really was obligated by law to hear out every petitioner that managed to reach him, there was nothing stopping him from hiding his lair from everyone.

The only people who could find him were those he allowed to.

“Then he will ask you to turn back time and rewrite the past.”

Clockwork turned around. “If you are just here to tell me that I’m not allowed to do that, then you’re wasting your time. I know the rules. What is this really about, Watcher?”

Watcher’s primary eye split in two, then merged back into one, slow and hypnotic. “You are a trusted ally, Clockwork, but the council is… concerned. It is rare for anyone to plead their case to you. They will be watching.”

…Well, this was going to be annoying.

Officially, Clockwork was just an employee who wasn’t allowed to do anything without the Observants’ say-so. Unofficially though…

The more powerful a spirit was, the easier it was for them to go against their nature. As a young spirit, Clockwork had craved that power, that freedom to do what he wanted instead of being bound to the whims of time. And Watcher, themself just a rookie Observant, had recognized his potential, realizing how useful his skills would be to the council.

And so they had made an agreement: the Observants would supply Clockwork with more power than he could ever hope to obtain on his own, and in return he would become an enforcer of their will. Having secured such a valuable employee, Watcher had quickly risen through the ranks, and Clockwork was free to do whatever he wanted, so long as he paid lip-service to the council.

But there was a second layer to their deal that few were aware of.

Even Watcher, the current head of the council and the most powerful Observant among them, was still limited by their inner drive to uphold the law. There was only so far they could push before their own nature stopped them.

This was Clockwork’s true role: not a tool for the Observants to use, but a counterbalance they desperately needed, who could go behind their backs and do what they couldn’t, while they pretended they didn’t see anything.

Unfortunately, only the upper ranks of the council were aware of this. The rest simply weren’t capable of bending the law the same way and willingly turning a blind eye to his actions.

Clockwork sighed. Well, this was hardly the first time he had to run circles around the Observants. “I’ll keep that in mind, Watcher.”

Luckily for him, only the High Council had the ability to see through his powers. And they also understood when they should look away.

Time out.

Chapter Text

Day after day, Danny returned to the Ghost Writer’s library, searching through the dusty tomes for any mention of Clockwork. The search was slow and mostly fruitless, but Danny couldn’t stop.

And at long last, fortune had smiled upon him. He had found a map, an actual map! Yes, it looked ancient and far from precise, but it was the first thing he had found that held actual directions.

“I’ll make you a copy, free of charge,” the Ghost Writer said, “but I want it on the record that I do not like it.”

Danny didn’t care. Even if this map led him into a trap, he would gladly risk it.

“And you still need to know how to get to the starting point,” the Ghost Writer said. “I can help you with that, but… be careful, alright?”

Danny could barely sleep that night, hoping against hope that he would finally manage to find the spirit of time. The next day, he barely managed to hide his excitement. He was pretty sure Vlad had noticed, but at least he hadn’t pressed: Danny doubted he would’ve been able to keep it to himself otherwise.

The route to the library was familiar to him by now, though Danny was surprised to see Johnny 13 there as well.

“Johnny has agreed to give you a lift half-way,” the Ghost Writer said and handed Danny the map and a notepad. “Here’s your copy and the directions to the starting point. After that, you’re on your own. Try not to get yourself killed. Now scram, before I change my mind and go tell Plasmius what you’ve been up to.”

Danny winced slightly. “Please, don’t.”

“Yeah, don’t,” Johnny agreed. “I don’t want to get him mad at me. So if anyone asks — I was never here, okay?”

Danny nodded. “Okay. And… Thank you, Johnny. Really.”

The ghost made a face. “Don’t get mushy on me, kid, I just had nothing better to do today. Now, let’s get a move on!”

The ride was fast, saving Danny both time and energy. He said goodbye to the unexpectedly helpful ghost and opened the instructions.

It was a slow going after that — the Ghost Zone was hard to navigate at the best of times — but Danny forged on. And even though it took him hours of flying through strange doors and forgotten lands, eventually he had found the place he needed.

A dark building floated in the nothingness: a strange cross between a medieval castle and a grandfather clock, surrounded by moving gears.

The legendary Clock Tower, home to the elusive Master of Time.

Steeling his nerves, Danny approached the ominous building. The front door opened before he could knock — and if that wasn’t an invitation, Danny didn’t know what was.

He floated through the dimly lit corridors filled with massive interlocking gears and rhythmic ticking noise. At the center of the tower was a large room with a round screen inside that was flicking between different places and different times.

There was a ghost watching the screen, a staff in one hand and a purple hooded cloak concealing his form.

“Danny Phantom,” he said evenly and turned around.

The ghost had blue skin and blood-red eyes and a dark jagged scar carved into his cheek. And on his chest was a glass door with a ticking clock behind it.

It really was him, the Master of Time.

“I’d ask what brings you here,” Clockwork continued, “but I already know, for I know everything.” His shape changed suddenly into that of a buck-toothed toddler, though it didn’t lessen the power and menace radiating from him in the slightest. “You want me to save your friends and family.”

“Please,” Danny whispered. “I need your help. You are the only one who could do this.”

“And why should I help you?” Clockwork asked coldly. He shifted again into a withered elder with a long white beard. “You are not the first person to lose their family, nor would you be the last. Why do you consider yourself so special? Why is your grief more important than anyone else’s?”

Danny felt tears prickle his eyes at the ghost’s callous tone. “Then what do you want? Please, I’ll do anything!”

“…Anything, you say?” Clockwork drawled, changing back into the form of a young man that he had started with.

Danny winced at the sudden ringing in his ears. It wasn’t a sound but an absence of one: the constant ticking noise had gone silent. He looked around and saw that the movement of the massive gears had stopped and the air had a strange blue tint to it.

And… was there something around his neck?

Danny looked down at himself and saw a strange gear-shaped medallion that he was now wearing.

He reached up to remove it, but Clockwork grabbed his wrist. “Now, now, don’t be so hasty. We don’t want anyone to overhear us.” The ghost rubbed the smooth surface of the medallion between his fingers with a dark smirk. “This will give us some much needed privacy from all the prying eyes.”

“…What did you do?” Danny asked with trepidation.

His every instinct was screaming at him to run away, that Clockwork was a threat the likes of which he had never seen before—

But he couldn’t. The lives of his loved ones were at stake.

Clockwork shrugged. “Like I said — privacy. Now, about that ‘anything’ proposition of yours…” The ghost disappeared between one moment and the next, then reappeared behind Danny’s back and whispered into his ear, “I do have a few things in mind.”

Danny screamed and flailed wildly to the Time Master’s amusement. Thankfully, Clockwork backed off and floated up to the screen. He gestured with his scepter and the image changed to a dark foreboding castle.

It looked distantly familiar to Danny. Wasn’t that supposed to be the lair of the Fright Knight?

“Pariah’s Keep,” Clockwork said. “What used to be the fortress for the King of All Ghosts and now contains his prison — the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep.”

The image changed again, showing a large coffin sitting atop a long staircase.

“Several years from now,” Clockwork continued, “Pariah Dark will break free and lead his army to conquer both the Ghost Zone and the human world.”

Danny watched transfixed as on the screen the coffin shattered and the monster walked free. He watched as the skeletal hordes marched through the streets, slaughtering everyone in their way. He watched as buildings burned and lairs crumbled, as living and undead alike rose up against the King of All Ghosts, only to fall before his might. He watched as the survivors were captured and chained and tortured, an endless nightmare of suffering where even death couldn’t bring relief—

When would it stop?!

“It won’t,” Clockwork said. “If Pariah wins, he will rule until the stars turn to dust. Which is why I want you to prevent this from ever happening.”

“How?! How am I supposed to do this if no one in the world could stop him?!”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Clockwork smirked, once again disappearing from sight to reappear behind Danny’s back. “In the hands of a good player any pawn can become a queen.”

Danny trembled as the Time Master whispered into his ear, poisonously sweet, “It’s not a hard bargain, is it? You will save the world from a fate worse than death and I will bring your friends and family back. Everybody will get what they want.”

“…Then what’s the catch?” Danny asked because there was always a catch and Clockwork laughed in response, dark and malicious.

“Power always comes with a price and for this you will have to pay with your soul.”

Danny hated how much his voice shook when he asked, “What do you mean?”

“There are ways to gain power: dark, forbidden ways that even in the lawless lands had been taboo for millennia.”

Clockwork vanished and reappeared right in front of Danny, pressing one hand over his chest.

“The core is the essence of every ghost and spirit, their very self… The source of their power. And any core can be taken… and devoured.”

“Y-you mean—”

Clockwork pointed at the screen. “How else do you think Pariah has grown so powerful and so feared?”

On the screen, the mad king ripped a ghost in half in a gruesome shower of ectoplasm. He pulled a bright orb out of the gory mess and swallowed it with a dark laugh.

“And if you want to match him, you will have to do the same.”

Danny rapidly shook his head, horrified beyond belief. “No, no, no! I’ll never do this! Never!”

“Of course you will,” Clockwork purred, smug and condescending. “It’s only a matter of time.”

Johnny really should’ve left by this point. Hanging out in the middle of nowhere wasn’t his style and he definitely didn’t want to go forward, into the uncharted region that he didn’t know how to navigate.

Besides, he had done what he promised. If the kid wanted to get into trouble, it wasn’t his job to babysit him.

And yet, he stayed.

Shadow kept grumbling at him, but it sounded a little worried too.

Johnny absentmindedly petted the long tendrils on its head. “It’s been a few hours already. Shouldn’t be long now.”

Whether the kid found Clockwork or not, he should be coming back soon.

Johnny had guessed right: soon enough, he saw the kid flying back. Only something was wrong. It was like Danny was flying completely blindly: he slammed into rocks and broke through the branches of withered trees as if he didn’t even notice them.

“Kid, what the hell?!” Johnny yelped, when Danny shot right past him, completely ignoring his presence. He revved his bike and drove after the halfa. “Danny! Slow down, it’s just me!”

The kid didn’t seem to hear him, flying through the Ghost Zone like all the devils of hell were after him.

And heading straight into a cliff.

“Shadow, catch him!” Johnny ordered. Sure, the kid was pretty sturdy, but that was gonna hurt.

Shadow was fast, and right before the impact, it managed to put itself between Danny and the wall of rock. Its malleable body bounced him back, finally interrupting his frantic flight and allowing Johnny to catch up.

“Kid, seriously, what the hell is going on with you?” Johnny asked.

Danny looked like he wasn’t entirely there, but finally some recognition returned to his expression. “…Johnny?”

“Yeah. Mind telling me why you just tried to brain yourself on that rock?”

Danny stared at the cliff. “I did?”

“Yes, you did! Maybe try to look where you’re flying next time?!” Johnny dragged a hand through his hair. He knew he shouldn’t get mad at the kid, but he was worried, dammit! “What happened? Did you find Clockwork?”

Danny paled rapidly. He wrapped his arms around himself, starting to shake.

Shit. This did not look good.

Johnny raised his hands. “Okay, you don’t have to tell me!”

Danny clasped his hands over his mouth, stifling a sob, and to his alarm, Johnny saw tears in his eyes.

…Ah, dammit. Johnny had no idea what to do when someone was crying! When Kitty was upset, she usually got mad instead.

He floated up to the kid and awkwardly patted his back. It didn’t seem to help in any way, but this close, he could hear Danny muttering something. “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t…”

Johnny couldn’t even guess what this was about. He glanced at Shadow. “Hey, any suggestions?”

Shadow shrugged, looking about as uncomfortable as Johnny felt. No help there…

He should probably get the kid back home, before Plasmius hunted them down. On the other hand, Plasmius wouldn’t be happy with the state the kid was in.

The library then. The Ghost Writer might know what to do.

The Ghost Writer had suspected that this was going to end badly, but he still hadn’t expected Johnny to barge into his library in panic, dragging completely unresponsive Danny with him.

The halfa looked like he was in shock, and Johnny couldn’t adequately explain what happened. “I dunno, man. He came back from wherever the hell he’s been, looking more dead than I am, then started crying, and then he just… shut down.”

And then, if that wasn’t bad enough, Plasmius had showed up. And, predictably, he wasn’t happy in the slightest.

“What have you done to Daniel?!” Plasmius snarled, his hands full of ecto-energy.

“We didn’t do shit!” Johnny protested. Shadow hovered above him, ready to attack.

The Ghost Writer bared his sharp teeth and materialized a keyboard under his hand. “Do not start a fight here, unless you want to become the characters of my next novel! I guarantee it will not be a pleasant experience for you. And Johnny is right: whatever happened to the boy, it wasn’t our doing.”

“And you expect me to believe that?” Plasmius scoffed.

“Don’t fight, please,” Danny choked out.

“Daniel!” Plasmius pivoted down and clasped his shoulder. “Little badger, are you alright?”

Danny shook his head. “Not their fault…”

Plasmius slowly exhaled, visibly trying to calm down. Finally, he turned back to the Ghost Writer. “I want answers and you are going provide them. Or else.”

Vlad could hardly believe what he was hearing. Daniel had tried to make a deal with a spirit? And those two-and-a-half brainless morons just let him? Helped him even?!

They were lucky Daniel seemed to care about their continued existence, otherwise the Ghost Zone would’ve had a few inhabitants less!

Vlad took Daniel back home, and now he was frantically working on the Ghost Catcher. It was clear to him now that what he had mistaken for improvement had been nothing of the sort.

Daniel hadn’t been getting better, it was just the repeat of the mess with Desiree. And it looked like this second failure had crushed the boy completely.

If Vlad wanted to help him, he would have to do something drastic.

Chapter Text

Danny hadn’t told anyone what had really happened during his meeting with Clockwork, but he still couldn’t put the Time Master’s words out of his head. He had come to the Clock Tower searching for a way to bring back his friends and family, but Clockwork claimed there was a lot more at stake.

The fate of the entire world.

But could he really trust the spirit? The things he had shown… How would Danny even know if they were true or not?

He had to find out. Because if it was true…

Vlad had forbidden him to go back to the Ghost Zone, still blaming Johnny and the Ghost Writer for everything. He had also spent every free moment in his lab, working on something.

Danny had to wait until Vlad finally left the castle. He snuck into the lab, hoping that the portal code hadn’t been changed, but to his surprise, the doors were wide open. Did that mean Vlad was in the Ghost Zone?

Well, that made things easier. Danny would just have to be careful not to run into him.

Vlad had barely slept for days, devoting every spare minute to the Ghost Catcher. The device turned out to be too broken to rebuild, so Vlad had scrapped it entirely and used its shards to build something better.

And now the device was ready, he just had to test it.

Vlad flew through the Ghost Zone, searching for a test subject. It had to be a sapient ghost, not just an animal. And it had to be someone he could subdue without much trouble. Someone weak, someone that nobody would miss if things went awry—

“Beware!”

Vlad slowly smirked, baring his fangs in cruel delight. Oh, what a lucky catch…

“Box Ghost,” he greeted cordially. “You’re just who I was looking for.”

That pathetic excuse for a ghost, one of those responsible for Maddie’s death and Daniel’s misery, puffed up in oblivious arrogance. “I am the Box Ghost! The most powerful, threatening… threat in the Ghost Zone!”

“Of course, you are,” Vlad agreed sweetly.

Then he decked the Box Ghost in the face with the heavy metal gauntlets he was wearing. With a high nasal scream, the wimpy ghost was sent flying, right into the waiting hands of Vlad’s duplicates who promptly pinned him down.

“I cannot describe in simple words how much I despise your continued existence,” Vlad admitted. He activated the gauntlets and extended glowing talons made from the Ghost Catcher shards. “Instead, I think I’ll let my actions speak for me.”

He plunged the claws into the ghost’s stomach. His smile only widened at the sound of his pained scream.

Vlad pulled the claws out and watched with curiosity as the wounds they left behind immediately closed on their own. Ghosts regenerated quickly, but this didn’t look like regular healing. The wounds didn’t even bleed.

“Y-you won’t get away with this!” the Box Ghost proclaimed, though his voice was shaking. “I’m the master of corrugated cardboard and— Aaaahhh!”

Vlad struck him again and again, and each time there was no permanent damage left. That was good, he didn’t want to harm Daniel. And the pain would be easy to deal with: Vlad would simply need to put the boy under anesthesia.

But now he needed to check the primary function of the gauntlets. A ghost’s consciousness was contained within their core. Which meant…

Vlad dug his claws right into the middle of the Box Ghost’s chest. His little lab rat trashed and wailed in agony, but the hold of his duplicates was unbreakable.

He focused. The claws should be able to rend the ghost’s primitive mind and pull apart all its petty emotions.

And he could feel it. The claws snagged on something: little fragile strands, like grass roots hidden in the sand. Now he just had to figure out what exactly these strands corresponded to.

Vlad tried to pull them out, but every time the strands slipped away, leaving him more and more frustrated.

And the Box Ghost just kept whining, trying to threaten him. As if this idiot could ever be a threat!

Vlad snarled in rage. “You are a pathetic, disgusting weakling, and the only reason you can’t see it is because you are too fucking stupid to realize it!”

Suddenly, Vlad wanted nothing more than for the Box Ghost to understand what a lowly gnat he truly was. And immediately, he felt his claws catch onto something slightly more solid.

He pulled and tore glowing threads of something out of the ghost’s chest. With a last strangled cry, the Box Ghost went still.

Vlad frowned slightly. He didn’t care if the little creature disintegrated, but that would make these gauntlets too dangerous to use on Daniel.

The Box Ghost flinched awake. He didn’t struggle anymore, just stared at Vlad in fear.

“Not going to threaten me with cardboard boxes and bubble wrap anymore?” Vlad scoffed, trying to get some reaction out of him. He needed to check whether his lab rat was still mentally sound (as much as usual, at least). “Aren’t you the great and powerful Box Ghost?”

“No,” the ghost whispered, completely unlike his usual loud proclamations. “I’m— I’m not powerful. I can’t fight you.”

Vlad blinked in surprise. The Box Ghost admitted that he was weak? That was unthinkable. Except…

He stared at the slowly dissolving strands still wrapped around his claws. He had wanted this, hadn’t he?

So this was how the Ghost Gauntlets truly worked: it all came down to intent.

“You really shouldn’t be here,” the Ghost Writer said when Danny returned to his library. “I don’t want Plasmius coming back to threaten me again.”

“He doesn’t know I’m here and I won’t tell him anything,” Danny promised. “Please, I just need some information and then I’ll be out of your hair.”

The Ghost Writer grimaced slightly. “I feel like I’m going to regret it, but fine. What do you want to know?”

“Tell me about Pariah Dark.”

The Ghost Writer reeled back in shock. “What?! No!”

“I need to know about him, please!” Danny begged.

“He’s the worst monster the Ghost Zone has ever seen!” the Ghost Writer snapped. “I don’t know what harebrained scheme you have concocted, but I will not condone it! You have no idea what Pariah is capable of!”

“Them help me understand!”

“Fine! You want to know so badly? I’ll tell you! This world used to have kings and queens — powerful ghosts who could control the very fabric of the Ghost Zone. They were the only authority who could pass down laws and command the council of the Observants, who acted as their enforcers to uphold order. Some of these rulers were better than others, some were worse… But Pariah Dark was a monster. All he wanted was to murder and torture everyone in his path! And no one could stop him.”

Danny swallowed thickly. “No one at all? But if he was so bad, why didn’t the other ghosts turn on him?”

The Ghost Writer scoffed. “You think they hadn’t tried? Pariah was simply too powerful. It didn’t matter if a thousand ghosts stood against him — he would defeat them all. And then he would rip out and devour their cores, adding their power to his own, and grow ever-stronger.”

“Then how was he defeated? He had to have been defeated, right?”

“A group of powerful ancient spirits had banded together and created the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep: an enchanted coffin that would keep Pariah imprisoned for the rest of time. No one knows how they did it, but those spirits… They sacrificed all their power, their very cores to save everyone from the tyranny of that murderous lunatic. So don’t go looking for him, Danny. Pariah can’t control time, he can’t resurrect the dead, and he can’t fulfill wishes. He is the most evil ghost in existence and he will not help you!”

Danny had promised not to search for Pariah, but that had been a complete lie. The moment he left the Ghost Writer’s lair, he headed towards Pariah’s Keep.

The ugly crimson castle was eerily quiet. Danny distantly remembered the skeleton guards attacking him the last time he had been there, but this time they remained still and merely watched him with their empty eye sockets.

He went deeper and deeper into the castle until he finally found a large hall where a dark sarcophagus stood atop a long staircase, exactly like Clockwork had shown him.

At the bottom of the stairs were two more skeletons. One held a translucent orb with a green ring inside. The other was holding a purple jack-o-lantern that had a green sword sticking out of it. So that was where it had disappeared to after Danny had sealed the Fright Knight.

Danny floated towards the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep and slowly circled around it. It was intimidatingly large, and he shuddered to think about the monster it contained.

But it was containing him, wasn’t it? Pariah had been trapped in there for centuries. If he hadn’t escaped until now, surely—

Danny froze. There on the side of the Sarcophagus was a hair-thin crack. And right before his eyes, it grew a fraction longer, emanating power and malice the likes of which Danny had never felt before.

He backed away, barely able to breathe from the soul-rending terror. It was true, it was all true! Everything Clockwork had shown him was going to happen!

Pariah would break free and destroy the world and no one would be able to stop him!

Danny didn’t remember how he got out of Pariah’s Keep. He didn’t remember the flight back to the portal. He didn’t even remember turning back human. When he finally came to, he found himself huddled in the corner of Vlad’s lab with the man himself fretting over him.

His arm hurt for some reason. Danny stared numbly at the bandages that covered his wrist.

“What happened?” Danny rasped. He poked the bandages and saw blood mixed with ectoplasm soaking through the fabric.

“If you are asking that, then hopefully not what I was thinking,” Vlad said. “You’ve cut your arm, Daniel. I’m— I’m hoping it wasn’t on purpose.”

Danny couldn’t remember.

“It was an accident,” he said anyway.

He had probably just nicked his wrist on something sharp when he returned. He was clumsy, not suicidal.

…Wasn’t he?

Vlad sighed heavily. “Daniel, this— this has to stop. It’s been months. I know you are still grieving, but— You can’t just throw your life away!”

Danny stared at him numbly. Vlad made it sound so easy… As if he could simply switch off his emotions.

And this wasn’t even about him anymore. A monster was going to awaken and destroy the world, and the only way to stop him was—

Danny felt bile rising up his throat. He couldn’t even think about it. But if he didn’t do it—

“Daniel, there is something I’ve been working on,” Vlad continued. He put on large metal gauntlets and extended sharp claws from the fingertips. “These are the Ghost Gauntlets. I have built them using the schematics from the Fenton Ghost Catcher — your parents’ invention. It was meant to separate ectoplasm from regular matter, but it can also be used to manipulate the mind of a ghost.”

Danny remembered that.

The first time he had passed through the Ghost Catcher had been an accident. It had torn him in two, human and ghost, but both halves had been him, and the only thing they had done afterwards was immediately merge back together.

The second time had been intentional. Danny had wanted to have a ghost-free weekend of fun with his friends, so he had split himself in two once more: Fun Danny and Super Danny. One to hang out with his friends, the other to hunt ghosts and protect Amity.

And neither of them had been truly him.

He hadn’t even realized it until the two parts recombined, but they had only been pieces of him, mere fragments of his personality exaggerated and warped into caricatures of himself.

Vlad was still talking. “I have already tested it, Daniel, and it works. I know that tampering with your emotions is an extreme measure, but I can use this device to remove all the grief and guilt that have been plaguing you so much.”

If these gauntlets worked just like the Ghost Catcher did, they would change him. Tear him into fragments that weren’t him anymore.

But if the fragment that remained of him had no grief, no guilt… Would it be able to do what was necessary? Would it hunt down and devour ghosts without remorse to grow in power until it was capable of matching Pariah in battle?

The Ghost Catcher had worked on intent. If Danny intended to become a monster, would the Ghost Gauntlets do it?

Because this wasn’t about him anymore or about his loved ones. This was about the fate of the world.

And if Danny had to sacrifice his soul to save it, then so be it.

“Do it.”

Chapter Text

In the back of his mind, Vlad knew that he was being too hasty. He had only properly tested the Ghost Gauntlets on the Box Ghost and he didn’t even observe that idiot for long afterwards.

He had tried the gauntlets on his own duplicates, but they simply weren’t sapient enough for that purpose. He had tried them on himself, but even under the local anesthesia, the claws had hurt too much for him to focus properly.

He needed more data, more research… But he didn’t have that time.

The security camera recordings had shown that Daniel really had hurt himself by accident, but it didn’t make the situation much better, because he hadn’t reacted to the injury in any way. He had simply ignored it and allowed it to bleed freely. If the cut had been a little closer to the vein or if Vlad had returned home a little later—

No, he couldn’t even bear thinking about it.

This had to be done, for Daniel’s sake.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Daniel?” Vlad asked one last time.

The boy nodded decisively. “Yes.”

Then there was no reason to stall anymore.

Vlad locked the restraints around the boy and pressed the mask to his face, turning on the carefully calibrated mixture of gases that could knock out a half-ghost. Mere seconds later, the boy went under.

He waited for a minute, just to make sure the general anesthesia was working properly, but the vitals remained calm and steady.

Vlad put the Ghost Gauntlets on and extended the claws. He carefully pressed the tips to Daniel’s chest, then slowly pushed them in. There was a small spike in the heartrate, but it immediately went back to the steady rhythm.

There was no other reaction, so Vlad pushed deeper until he finally felt the same ethereal strands he remembered. He focused on what he needed to remove: the guilt, the grief, the pain… Anything that kept Daniel stuck in the past and prevented him from moving on.

The strands solidified, and Vlad quickly pulled them out.

Halfway through, something snagged.

Vlad grunted in surprise and pulled again, but the strands felt stuck, as if they were too deeply tangled to pull apart.

The heart monitor beeped frantically, and Vlad immediately let go. He retracted the claws and took a step back, trying to understand what could’ve possibly gone wrong there.

His intent had been clear and he had found the strands he needed. So why couldn’t he remove them? Were halfas just fundamentally different in some way?

But Daniel had told him that the Ghost Catcher had worked on him. There was no reason for the gauntlets not to work as well.

Or maybe…

The Box Ghost had no idea what Vlad had been doing to him. But Daniel did. So perhaps it wasn’t just Vlad’s intent that mattered, but also the subject’s? In that case…

He readied the Ghost Gauntlets again. This was all for Daniel’s sake, so he would allow the boy’s intent to lead him.

He woke up and all he knew was pain. It felt worse than any weapon or ecto-blast, worse even than the accident that half-killed him!

Mouth open in a silent scream, he grabbed the source of his agony and pulled it out of his chest. As his sight cleared, he saw the startled face of Vlad Masters covered by a surgical mask in front of him.

“Daniel?” the man stammered in shock. “Oh, no-no-no-no, this wasn’t supposed to happen!”

Vlad was looking somewhere behind him. He turned around and followed his gaze to see another him.

A human him.

Now that the pain had subsided, other sensations came to the forefront. There was a certain lightness to him now, a cold weightless feeling that only true ghosts could experience. He remembered it from before, from that part of him that once called itself ‘Super Danny’.

It was the only thing from that experience he could still relate to.

That fragment had been so fixated on helping everyone and protecting the people who hated him in return… Why had it mattered to him so much? Why had he cared whether they lived or died?

It all seemed so silly to him now… A child playing out a comic book fantasy.

So utterly pointless.

“Daniel? Daniel!” Vlad was calling.

He looked blankly at the man who had removed the Ghost Gauntlets and was now pointing some device at him.

“The scanner shows that neither of you are halfas. You are a ghost, and he,” Vlad nodded at the still unconscious human, “is human.”

He had already figured that out.

“Daniel, I don’t know what exactly went wrong, but you two need to recombine.”

“Wrong?” he repeated. “I don’t feel wrong.”

He remembered the intent he had kept at the forefront of his mind before he fell unconscious. He wanted to become emotionless, merciless…

And it seemed that he had succeeded.

There was no pain left in his mind, no grief that dogged his steps… No love for those he had lost, no hope for their return…

There was simply emptiness.

…No, not quite. There was something burning in his core, the goal he had been created for: to do everything he could to grow in power, defeat Pariah Dark, and fulfill his deal with Clockwork.

Save the world from the mad king and bring his friends and family back.

“Well, I’m glad it worked,” Vlad said, “but you cannot remain like this.”

“Why not?”

He had been split by the Ghost Catcher before.

“Because you are not a full ghost and he is not a full human. Both of you are just halves. I have spent a lot of time researching my own biology, Daniel, and I can tell you this: the two sides are too deeply intertwined to function on their own. You cannot remain as just a half of the whole. A simple scan was enough to show that you’re unstable.” Vlad turned away from him, busy checking the medical devices attached to the human. “And his vitals have dropped. I don’t know if either of you can exist like this, but it will, at best, completely destroy your health.”

“So, I can’t be a half,” he summed up.

He looked at the Ghost Gauntlets that Vlad had left on the table behind him. Two halves made a whole, didn’t they?

He quietly slid his hands into the gauntlets and focused. He had to get this right: if he were to join with Plasmius, he didn’t need another mind with all those pesky emotions polluting his own. All he needed was something to stabilize him.

And if he could steal Plasmius’ power in the process, then all the better.

While Vlad was still distracted, he quickly extended the claws and buried them into his back. Vlad screamed in shock and pain, but that was irrelevant. He had to obtain what he needed from the man, nothing else mattered.

He pulled with all his strength, and with a wet tearing noise, he ripped the halfa in two.

The human half hit his head on the sharp corner of the nearby table and collapsed on the floor, but his fate was unimportant. Only the ghost half was useful to him.

He wasn’t sure whether he had managed to split them the right way, but there was no time to hesitate. He flew into Plasmius, willing to overshadow him, and—

There was nothing to overshadow. The ghost was just an empty shell without mind or memories.

Perfect for his goal.

He stretched, spreading his awareness through the shell. Their ectoplasm mixed together, starting to merge.

Their cores connected.

It felt like molten lead poured into his chest to envelop his core. It burned and burned, spreading beneath his skin and splitting it apart. His hair ignited into white flames — only a pale imitation of the supernova trying to burst out of his body — and he screamed, hovering in the air as waves of destructive energy radiated from his form.

Finally, it was over, and he collapsed on the floor, feeling at once weak and energized.

But most importantly, he felt stable.

“Phantom?” a weak voice croaked.

He looked up and stared into the blue eyes of his human self.

“Danny.”

The names felt both wrong and right in a way he couldn’t describe.

The human was tugging weakly at his restraints. Phantom floated towards him and easily ripped them off.

Danny sat up on the table and clumsily pulled off the electrodes attached to his skin. He tried to stand up, but his knees immediately buckled.

Phantom caught him before he could hit the floor and set him down to lean against the wall. In the back of his mind, he wondered why he bothered.

“You look different,” Danny said.

He raised his hand and brushed his fingers through the white fire of Phantom’s hair. It didn’t seem to hurt him.

“I feel different,” Phantom replied. “It worked.”

Danny closed his eyes and took a shuddering breath. “Only for you.”

“We expected that,” Phantom pointed out.

The last time they had used the Ghost Catcher, their emotions hadn’t disappeared, they had been simply… redistributed.

And if Phantom had none, then Danny had everything.

Danny opened his eyes that glistened with tears. “It hurts, Phantom.” He clawed at his chest. “It hurts so much…”

Phantom didn’t like seeing him like this. Strange… Were there still some emotions lingering within him?

He turned to look at Vlad, but the sight of the still unconscious man and the blood slowly staining his hair red brought no feelings. Perhaps it was only Danny, his other half, who could still evoke something from him.

“…What have you done to him?”

Phantom turned back to Danny. “He said that I was unstable and couldn’t exist as just a half. So I took a half from him to become whole.”

“Is— is he still alive?”

“Why should it matter whether he is alive or dead?” Phantom asked. “I am stable and his power is mine now.”

“How can you say that?!” Danny burst out. “How can you just—”

“—Not care?” Phantom finished. “I no longer have this ability. Nothing matters to me anymore other than the goals I was created to achieve.”

“I’m sorry…” Danny whispered. More tears ran down his cheeks. “I’m so sorry…”

He pulled Phantom into a desperate hug, still whispering the litany of apologies.

Slowly, Phantom hugged him back. It felt strange, but also somehow right to comfort his human half. “Why are you apologizing?”

“I did this to you—”

“Wrong,” Phantom flatly replied. “There was no you or me before. The person who had made that decision was both of us together. And we cannot unmake that choice.”

He felt Danny sag limply against him. “…No, I guess we can’t. It’s too late for that, isn’t it?”

Phantom leaned back slightly and cradled the sides of Danny’s face, pressing their foreheads together. “I will do what I was created for, no matter what. I will defeat Pariah and save the world and bring our friends and family back. I promise.”

Danny gave him a shaky smile. “I know you will. I believe in you. I’m just sorry it had to end like this.”

“I’m not. We only did what was necessary.”

“It had to be done…” Danny whispered. “Then why does it still hurt so much? Phantom, please… I can’t take it anymore. Make it stop.”

Phantom pulled him into another embrace, resting his chin on the human’s shoulder. Danny clutched him back, his black hair tangling with white flames.

It was soothing to hold him close like this, but it couldn’t last forever. Danny was his other half, his humanity, his weakness… But for their plan to succeed, Phantom couldn’t afford vulnerability.

And he couldn’t let Danny keep suffering like this. The least he could do for his human self was to end his pain.

With a translucent shimmer, intangibility covered Phantom’s right hand and he dipped his fingertips into Danny’s back. The human shivered slightly from the ghostly chill, though he didn’t move away.

Phantom pushed his hand deeper, until his fingers brushed the heart. It felt so warm, so alive, that for a moment he hesitated, something inside him protesting at the thought of ending this life.

Danny sighed, his voice so quiet, it was almost impossible to hear. “…Please.”

And in a split-second move, Phantom turned his heart intangible and tore it out.

Danny shuddered, his body seizing up — and then it slackened, falling utterly still. Phantom held him close for a moment and then carefully laid him down.

He didn’t look dead, as if he was merely sleeping with a sad smile on his face.

Phantom felt a faint twinge of something that might have been guilt or sorrow if he had been still capable of feeling it. He stared at the bloodied heart and called fire to his hand, burning it to ashes.

A familiar whine of a charging ecto-weapon made him dodge the incoming blast on instinct.

“What have you done, you monster?!” Vlad shouted.

So he was still alive after all…

Phantom charged an ecto-blast in his hand. If the man wanted to fight, Phantom would make sure it was the last thing he did.

Vlad shot at him again, but his aim was wildly off. That hit on the head clearly hadn’t done him any favors.

The blast hit some equipment on the wall, which immediately started to sparkle. The electric discharge spread through the wires and reached the controls of the portal.

Phantom immediately disregarded any concern about Vlad. That man was completely irrelevant to his goals, but Phantom needed the portal. Everything he required to fulfill his purpose was in the Ghost Zone. And if this portal was damaged, Phantom wasn’t completely sure he’d be able to reactivate the one in FentonWorks.

Without wasting any more time, Phantom flew into the portal. Once he was through, he turned around and looked at the doorway between worlds.

Vlad was clever and he would no doubt make himself a nuisance if he was left to his own devices. He had to be dealt with.

Phantom clasped his hands together and gathered ecto-energy between his palms. The more he gathered, the more he had to pull his hands apart to accommodate the ever-growing orb of green.

The orb was larger than his head when Phantom felt like it was too volatile to continue. This would have to be enough.

He threw the orb through the portal and immediately dove to the side. An explosion of green flames burst out and then the portal closed completely. Whether it had been destroyed or merely shut down, Phantom didn’t know, nor did he care.

Vlad shouldn’t have survived that. And even if he did, his entire lab would be completely wrecked. It would take him time to rebuild.

Human world no longer concerned him, so Phantom didn’t pay it another thought as he flew deeper into the Ghost Zone, away from the place he had never learnt to call home.

He didn’t look back.

Chapter Text

Phantom flew through the Ghost Zone, unhurried but with purpose.

Firstly, he needed to find a secluded corner where he could properly test his powers. He could feel that they had changed after he had absorbed Plasmius, but he needed to know how.

Secondly, he needed a test subject: a ghost whose core he could rip out and devour. Preferably, a weak ghost that wouldn’t cause him too much trouble. And that no one would care if it disappeared.

And Phantom had an idea where he could find both.

It took him a bit of searching, but eventually he had found a floating door that resembled that of a fridge. Phantom opened it and flew into the frozen wasteland inside.

“Will you be my friend?” a voice echoed in the distance.

Phantom flew towards it. Soon, the familiar figure of the pajama-clad ghost came into view.

“Hello, Klemper,” Phantom greeted. “I’d like to be your friend.”

“Really?!”

The ghost immediately lunged at him, trying to capture him into a bone-breaking hug.

Phantom easily dodged him. “I don’t like hugs, Klemper. But I like playing games with my friends. Would you like to play a game with me?”

Klemper nodded eagerly. “Uh-huh.”

“Then how about hide-and-seek? Close your eyes and count to ten. No peeking.”

Klemper obediently covered his eyes and started to count aloud. “One, two, three…”

Phantom silently flew around him and charged an ecto-blast in his hand. He increased its strength until its glow became almost blinding, and then shot Klemper right in the middle of his back.

The energy blasted a deep hole in his torso. Klemper cried out in pain, choking on his own ectoplasm.

Phantom tackled him down and shoved his hands into the wound. Klemper squealed and tried to buck him off, but the injured ghost was nowhere near strong enough to dislodge him. Phantom dug around until he felt something inside that resonated with energy. He grabbed the object and pulled, tearing it free.

Klemper shuddered, gurgled, and dissolved into a pile of ectoplasm. And the brightly glowing orb Phantom was holding immediately began to dim.

The ectoplasm protected the core and the core gave the ectoplasm form. Neither could function without the other for longer than a few seconds.

But that was all Phantom really needed.

He shoved the freezing cold core into his mouth and swallowed it. The bitter taste was nauseating, but Phantom didn’t care. This needed to be done.

He felt the core dissolve in his stomach and its power slowly spread through his body. It wasn’t much, but that didn’t matter. This was merely a proof of the concept.

Now that he knew for certain that it could be done, Phantom could begin his hunt in earnest.

But first, he had to check his powers. The freezing cold didn’t bother him, so this place would work well enough as a testing ground.

He started with the basics. His ecto-blasts seemed far more powerful than before, so it stood to reason that the rest of his abilities would be stronger now too.

Phantom raised a hand in front of himself and focused, forming a translucent shield. It usually required a fair bit of power to create and maintain, but this time the energy drain was far more tolerable.

He backed away from the shield, leaving it hovering in place, and shot it with a reasonably strong ecto-blast. The shield cracked but held. He added more energy to the shield and the cracks repaired themselves.

Not bad, but still too energy-inefficient. Dodging should still be his priority in battle.

Phantom dismissed the shield and summoned a handful of flames. Even though he had never had this ability before, it felt completely natural to him.

This had to be the result of him absorbing Plasmius, though whether it had simply unlocked the power he already had the potential for or if it was completely stolen, Phantom wasn’t sure. He suspected it was the latter, simply because of how much Plasmius’ core had burned.

Phantom pressed his hands together, forcing the green flames to gather into an orb. He compressed them inside it as much as he could, though the orb still kept growing. He could feel the energy trying to break out, getting more volatile by the second.

He flew upwards where small islands of ice floated in the air. Then he tossed the orb down and hid behind one.

The orb exploded in a flare of green, and when Phantom looked down, he saw a fairly large crater melted through the ice. Despite the lengthy set-up, this… ecto-bomb had potential.

Phantom called more fire to his hands and switched it back and forth between flames and regular ecto-energy. He could feel the difference between the two, the way the energy was shaped: flaring and erratic to flowing and steady. Was it possible to shape it into something else?

He twisted the energy, searching for a new shape it could take, until it sizzled. Currents of electricity sparkled between his fingers, strong but directionless.

He hadn’t been able to do this before. Another gift from Plasmius? Or was it his own ability?

It didn’t matter as long as it was useful.

Now, what else could he twist his energy into? Perhaps, something more solid?

He swiped one hand over another, spreading and flattening the energy until it solidified into a translucent shard, like a flat piece of glass. A variation of a shield, albeit too small to use for its intended purpose.

It felt sturdy enough though. Perhaps, he could shape it into a weapon?

He added more energy to the shard, making it grow into something that resembled a sword. He experimentally swung it through the air. The edges were sharp, but the weapon felt far too awkward and unbalanced. He was more of a ranged fighter anyway.

Phantom dissolved the sword, then formed another flat shard, shaping it into a sharp-edged shuriken. He tossed it through the air, aiming for a nearby lump of snow. His aim was off and it flew far slower than an ecto-blast would. It required more energy to create too.

Not really worth it, then.

He dissolved the shuriken too and gathered another handful of ecto-energy. This time, he didn’t solidify it fully, leaving it in a halfway state of strange green goop. It stuck to his hands and when Phantom tried to separate them, it stretched like taffy. A small nudge at the way the energy was shaped changed its consistency enough to unstick the goop. Another nudge solidified it further into glowing green strands.

Something he could use as restraints, perhaps? He would have to check just how strong he could make it.

Now, for the most complicated part…

Phantom had never gotten a hang of duplication, but he should have enough power to pull it off now.

Ectoplasm was malleable. It could stretch and shift and split apart.

He focused on that feeling — stretching and stretching and stretching, like trying to move in two different directions at once. He felt himself starting to branch from the top of his head, down to his neck. This was as far as he had ever gotten before, but Phantom pushed the split further and further until—

He saw himself through his own eyes, from two different points of view that existed in his mind at once. A terrible, dizzying sensation that made him squeeze shut both sets of eyes and grab two heads with two sets of hands, feeling too disoriented to do anything else.

How was he supposed to control both bodies at once when he couldn’t even tell where one of them ended and the other began?

He stopped forcing the split and the two copies rejoined into one, instinctively pulled together.

He couldn’t understand what he had done wrong. His power level should be similar to what Plasmius had before, if not greater. And yet, Vlad could easily split himself into four copies while Phantom couldn’t even handle two.

Although… perhaps it wasn’t his power level at fault? Vlad’s duplicates could operate independently. Had he been using a different technique? He needed to gather more information.

And where better to find it than the library?

The Ghost Writer was getting a little worried, even if he didn’t want to admit it. The last time he had seen Danny, the halfa had been asking him about Pariah Dark.

What could Danny have possibly wanted with that monster?!

He paced around his lair, nervously tugging on his scarf. He hoped that Danny had enough common sense not to do anything stupid, but this was the same teen who had gone searching for the spirit of time. Common sense clearly wasn’t his first priority.

His doorbell rang suddenly and the Ghost Writer hurried to open the door. Was it Danny…?

It was.

And it wasn’t.

It sure looked like him — same features, same clothes — but the Danny he knew didn’t have blue skin or red eyes, his ears weren’t pointed and his hair wasn’t on fire.

“May I come in?” he asked, and the voice was all Danny, even if the fangs and forked tongue weren’t.

“What happened to you?” the Ghost Writer asked, stepping aside. He knew, of course, that ghosts were capable of changing their form, sometimes drastically, when they hit a certain threshold of power, but he didn’t realize it applied to halfas as well. “It’s only been a few days since we last saw each other.”

Danny only shrugged silently.

The Ghost Writer could already feel a building headache. “I’m just going to chuck this all up to halfa weirdness, if you don’t mind.”

He led his guest down the corridor into the library, not that Danny needed to be shown the way, considering how many times he had been there already.

“Oh, and by the way… Plasmius isn’t on the warpath anymore, is he? I really don’t want to fight him.”

Mostly because he knew he would lose. Sure, his reality-warping powers gave him an edge, but once the effect faded, he’d be in trouble.

“Vlad won’t be a problem,” Danny assured, lagging slightly behind him.

There was something strange about the way Danny said those words, but the Ghost Writer didn’t have the time to realize it when something hit him in the back. There was a moment of blazing pain—

And then he felt nothing at all.

Phantom pulled his hand out of the Ghost Writer’s back and immediately swallowed the brightly glowing core.

After he had left Klemper’s lair, he had hunted down a few weak ghosts, testing different approaches for removing their cores. Enveloping his hand in ecto-energy and hitting his target in the back seemed to be the fastest and most convenient way, though it did rely on the ghost in question turning their back to him in the first place.

Fortunately, the Ghost Writer knew him and trusted him, which made things easier. For everyone else, invisibility was a rather convenient way to set up an ambush. Few ghosts could sense each other the way he could.

Phantom flicked out his forked tongue, tasting the energy in the air.

This was another ability he had discovered. His ghost sense had undergone an odd mutation: where he could only detect the presence of a ghost before, now he could also sense their distinct ecto-signature and overall power. He wasn’t sure whether he still had his old ghost sense — it hadn’t worked in the Ghost Zone before, too much ecto-energy around — but the new one was rather convenient.

With the Ghost Writer gone, he could no longer sense his signature, but the lair itself still radiated an echo of it — like a faint scent of ink and old books.

Phantom floated higher into the air and looked around the library. He wasn’t sure how long a lair could last without the ghost that created it to support it, so he had to research everything he needed while he still could.

Firstly, he had to study ghostly abilities. Aside from his issues with duplication, Phantom had no idea what other powers he might be capable of. He could only try the abilities that he had seen in other ghosts. If he didn’t know something was possible, how could he test for it?

Secondly, he had to see if there were any other ways to increase his power. He had to gather as much as possible before Pariah broke out.

Thirdly, he had to learn more about Pariah himself. The more he knew about his target, the better he could plan their inevitable confrontation.

Lastly, he had to find out more information about spirits. Their lairs were well-hidden, but they were significantly stronger than regular ghosts, so their cores should give him more energy too. Clockwork was off-limits, but everyone else was fair game.

Phantom tasted the air again. He couldn’t sense any energy decay, so the lair should be stable for now. And if it started falling apart, perhaps he would be able to fix it himself? There might be some information about this as well.

He locked the outer doors of the library and set to work.

The book about ghost lairs he had found had been a useful read. Apparently, all that Phantom needed to do to claim a lair as his own after he removed the original owner was to fill it with his own energy. And the more energy he had, the more territory he could hold at once.

After claiming the library as his, Phantom dragged the door of Klemper’s lair closer and added it to his territory, joining the two locations together. The cold wilderness was a useful test ground, and it also made a better exit than the front doors of the library which Phantom had barred completely.

He didn’t want anyone to see him coming and going or wonder about the change in ownership.

Phantom wanted to stay under the radar for as long as he could. Ambush tactics were safer than open brawls, and it was easier to quietly eliminate his targets one by one without leaving any witnesses rather than allow them to band together.

He had already destroyed Desiree — just like the Ghost Writer, her reality-warping powers could’ve made her a nuisance — and he should be far stronger than the ghosts he usually dealt with, but it still paid to be cautious.

Besides, he’d rather not be disturbed when he still had research to do.

Chapter Text

Low and mid-level ghosts were disappearing and no one knew why.

Ember fidgeted, her fingertips hovering above the strings of her guitar. She would’ve thought those were idle rumors if not for the fact that one of those who had disappeared was Desiree.

They might not have been particularly close, but they were still friends. Ember had tried to look for her, even asked Skulker to help track her down, but so far they had found nothing. It was like she wasn’t even in the Ghost Zone anymore.

Maybe that was the reason? Both Amity Park and Wisconsin portals had been closed. If Desiree had been in the human world at the time, maybe she simply couldn’t get back?

Ember nodded to herself. Yes, this had to be it. Desiree was just having fun messing with the humans, that was all. Nothing to worry about.

Besides, Desiree could take care of herself. And it wasn’t like there were any threats left out there: the annoying halfa had quit ghost hunting, the older Fentons were dead, and the idiots in white were too stupid to pose any danger.

Ember had to stop jumping at shadows and get out of her lair already. She refused to barricade herself inside like the Ghost Writer did. She and Skulker had planned a double date in a local bar with Kitty and Johnny, so she had to get moving or she was going to be late.

Her internal pep talk had pushed the fear away, but it quickly crept back in. As she flew towards her destination, Ember kept cringing, expecting an attack from every angle.

This was what saved her.

She felt something behind her back — a quiet movement, a build-up of energy — and she dodged without thinking.

From the corner of her eye, she saw a transparent hand, only visible by the green flames around it, miss her ribs by less than an inch.

And then a second hand clamped around her neck in a crushing grip that she couldn’t phase out of. She couldn’t even scream as the flames ate through her skin, so strong that even her fire core couldn’t protect her.

Desperate to break free, Ember hit the strings of her guitar. Directionless sound waves slammed into both herself and her attacker, the impact stunning them enough to release her.

Ember quickly turned around, her hands flying to her injured throat, and stared in disbelief at her assailant.

No… It couldn’t be him…

Could it?

Phantom hadn’t expected that Ember would be sensitive enough to detect his presence and dodge his first attack, but he had been quick enough to grab her by the neck, using his own energy to keep her tangible.

Unfortunately, while the injury to her throat would’ve been lethal for a human, ghosts didn’t need to breathe. While painful, the wound wasn’t debilitating, and Ember could still fight.

She stared at him in shock, but then something in her expression hardened and she sent another blast of sound at him.

Phantom dodged around it and charged at his prey, lighting an ecto-blast in his hands. Unable to evade fast enough, Ember had to block the blast with her guitar which shattered into pieces. The force of the explosion pushed her back and Phantom seized the opportunity to get even closer, wrapping a solid length of ecto-rope around her and binding her arms to her torso.

Ember glared at him, angry and terrified, and charged an ecto-blast in her hands, twisting them awkwardly around. Phantom simply electrocuted her and drew more energy into his hands, ready to rip out her core.

Something slammed into his side, knocking him away, and a glowing net snapped around him.

…Skulker? Not someone he had expected to see.

He hadn’t tried to hunt down the hunter before — Skulker was just a tiny ghost in a robot suit, his core would be too weak to bother with — but any witnesses had to be eliminated.

Phantom strained against the durable net. It was a weapon made to hunt ghosts, so going intangible was useless. He would have to rip it apart to get free.

Skulker was oddly silent, with none of the usual bragging. He turned to Ember, getting even angrier at the sight of her wounded throat. He extended a sharp blade from his wrist and cut the ropes around her with a dark glare at Phantom.

“I don’t care what Plasmius says. I’m going to skin you alive, whelp, and enjoy every second of it,” the hunter growled.

Phantom didn’t bother to reply. His hair flared wildly as he called upon his fire powers and the threads binding him began to melt.

“Don’t!” Ember rasped in her broken voice. “Just get us away from him!”

Skulker hesitated for a second but obeyed. He extended his wings, gathered Ember in his arms, and quickly flew away.

With a burst of flames, Phantom finally tore the net open and rushed after the two ghosts. He couldn’t allow them to escape and warn anyone else.

“Stop glaring, will you?” Kitty said softly.

Johnny could hear her voice only because they were sitting so close. The bar they were in was nowhere as lively as it usually was since the number of patrons had been steadily declining, but it was still pretty noisy.

He scowled and looked away, knocking back his beer. “Kinda hard not to… And Shadow is a traitor.”

Kitty giggled. “Well, you gotta admit, the baby is pretty cute, no matter who her parents are.” She shook her head. “Still, who brings a baby to a bar?”

“Those two idiots, who else?” Johnny grumbled.

In truth, he didn’t have an issue with the baby or with the way Shadow was cooing over her. It was weird as hell, because since when did Shadow even like babies, but it wasn’t what pissed him off so much.

No, it was the baby’s parents that he hated.

The Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady. The two bastards who had caused the explosion that took the lives of Danny’s friends and family.

Johnny was distantly aware that he was being unfair. Those two were too weak to cause any serious damage, so it had probably been just a stupid accident. And it wasn’t like Johnny himself hadn’t fought Danny before.

But it was hard to remain fair, when the kid was a miserable depressed wreck, while those two were happily married with a child.

Johnny crossed his arms with a huff. He didn’t know when it happened, but he had grown to like the kid. And now he was worried too, because Danny hadn’t returned to the Ghost Zone since that disastrous trip to find Clockwork.

And Plasmius’ portal remained shut.

He hoped to hell it was just because Plasmius was an overprotective control-freak, and not because Danny had disappeared like so many other ghosts.

A distant explosion suddenly echoed outside. Then something — someone — flew through the nearby window, shattering it into a shower of glass.

An immediate hush fell over the bar as everyone went silent in surprise.

Johnny quickly pulled Kitty under the table. He didn’t mind a good brawl once in a while, but not when it might put his girlfriend in danger.

And especially not when some mysterious force was making random ghosts vanish.

The person who had crashed through the window stood up. Johnny recognized Skulker, but the hunter was in a terrible shape. He was missing his left arm, his wings were completely mangled, and his entire body had burn marks and missing pieces.

Clinging to him was Ember, who wasn’t looking much better. She was bruised and bleeding, and her neck was one giant burn.

Skulker raised his remaining arm and pointed it at the broken window. A small rocket flew out — and a gloved hand caught it, crushing it in its grip.

“…Kid?” Johnny whispered, barely able to believe his eyes.

His jumpsuit was the same, and he still looked as lanky and awkward as any teen, but that was the only similarity. Since when did Danny have blue skin or red eyes or fire hair?

What the hell did Plasmius do to him? And it had to be Plasmius, because why else would Danny look so much like him?

“Stay away!” Ember croaked. Her voice sounded completely ruined.

And utterly terrified.

She shot a blast of energy at Danny, but the kid just tilted slightly to the side, and it completely missed him.

He didn’t make any smartass remarks like he usually did in a fight. Instead, he was unnervingly silent, and his expression was blank and empty.

…Was that even Danny? Or some shapeshifting ghost trying to poorly copy him?

A loud cry pierced the quiet. Danny sharply twisted his head and stared at the wailing baby.

The Box Ghost cradled his daughter closer and slowly backed away. He had been acting a lot less stupid and arrogant these days, and now he looked scared out of his mind, recognizing that something was wrong.

With a low growl, Shadow interposed itself between them and Danny. It knew that something was wrong too.

It felt like they were all standing on the edge and any little push would send everyone crashing down.

Phantom stared at the crying baby with something that might have been curiosity if he was still capable of feeling it. He thought that all ghosts came into existence the same age they had been in life, while spirits were born from their respective concepts fully-formed.

Was this, perhaps, a ghost of a dead baby? But would a mere baby have a developed enough personality to make the transition from life to undeath?

However, this was ultimately irrelevant to his goals.

He had failed to catch Skulker and Ember in time, so now he had to destroy every single ghost here to stop them from spreading information about him.

Phantom didn’t think much of his chances. Ghosts were notoriously slippery and there was a lot of them here.

Three of them were already rising into the air, their hands glowing with ecto-energy. All three were ghosts he had faced in battle before: Spectra, Bertrand, and Technus. It seemed they decided to ignore Plasmius’ warning and the fact that Phantom had defeated them all multiple times before.

Skulker and Ember, on the other hand, looked like cornered rats. Phantom wasn’t sure whether they would make a stand or try to escape again.

The others didn’t seem so keen on fighting. Johnny 13 and Kitty were hiding under a table, Shadow and the Box Ghost were slowly backing away, while the Lunch Lady looked mostly disinterested.

Regardless, Phantom would have to deal with them all.

He raised his hands and swiped them to the sides, forming a translucent green shield that surrounded him like a cocoon. Several ecto-blasts impacted it, but Phantom ignored them. The shield should be able to take a little damage.

He clasped his hands together and pooled his energy between them. He had practiced this skill extensively, and now he needed only a few seconds to create an ecto-bomb.

The moment his shield shattered, Phantom threw the bomb into the middle of the bar.

When Kitty came to, she felt a heavy but familiar weight pinning her down.

“…Johnny?” she mumbled weakly.

She opened her eyes — and froze in horror. Johnny was unconscious and his entire back was a mess of torn and burnt ectoplasm. And right in the middle of it was a metal shard, stuck deeply enough to pierce him right through.

A horrible, drawn-out scream jolted Kitty out of her shock.

She looked up and saw Phantom with his hand shoved inside Spectra’s chest. The ghost’s expression was pure agony, but Phantom didn’t seem to care. He ripped out a bright orb — the core, it was Spectra’s core — and shoved it into his mouth.

Kitty nearly vomited in fear and disgust.

With a roar of rage, Bertrand lunged at Phantom in the shape of a jaguar, but he easily dodged the shapeshifter and caught his hind leg with a glowing rope. He slammed Bertrand on the floor, right next to the puddle of ectoplasm that used to be Spectra, and savagely tore into his back.

A few seconds later, Bertrand was no more, and Phantom swallowed his core as well.

They were going to be next, Kitty realized with cold certainty.

She didn’t understand what could’ve possibly driven Phantom to do this, but it didn’t matter. They had to get out of here before this monster murdered them too.

Kitty cradled her boyfriend’s limp body in her arms and frantically looked around. Where was Shadow? 

On the opposite side of the bar, Shadow was wrapped protectively around baby Box Lunch, stifling her cries in its dark mass. The edges of its body were torn and crumbling.

Kneeling next to it in frozen horror was the Box Ghost. The left side of his face was covered in ectoplasm dripping from the empty eye socket and his right arm was gone below the elbow.

Kitty couldn’t see Lunch Lady anywhere.

“Shadow,” she mouthed silently, afraid to make a sound.

Somehow it noticed. Shadow looked at her and made a low keening noise at the sight of Johnny’s wounded form.

Kitty wanted to cry. They had to escape, but how could they possibly outrun Phantom?

Now that monster had caught Technus and looked ready to rip out his core as well.

Suddenly, the technological ghost vanished, transforming into pure electricity. He surged through the mangled pile of metal that used to be Skulker, reconstructing the broken robotic body into something more functional.

He lunged at Phantom, who easily dodged the clumsy grasp. But the monster couldn’t dodge dozens of wires that snaked out from beneath the broken plating, wrapped tightly around him, and electrocuted him.

This was their chance!

Kitty lurched into the air with Johnny in her arms. Shadow scooped up Box Ghost and Box Lunch and rushed towards her.

Phantom ripped the wires off and blasted the reconstructed robot into pieces. Then he started to charge another terrible bomb in his hands.

Ember shot the bomb and it exploded right in his hands, blasting him back. She grabbed Skulker’s head that still sparkled weakly with electricity from the pile of broken metal and stumbled towards Kitty.

“The hell are you waiting for?!” Ember rasped. “Run!”

Kitty flew outside and immediately zeroed in on Johnny’s motorcycle. She landed on it and revved the engine. “Ember, behind me! And hold Johnny!”

Ember climbed on, still holding Skulker’s head in a death grip, and grabbed onto Johnny’s unconscious form.

Shadow clutched the back of their seat with one hand and wrapped the rest of itself around the Box Ghost and his baby.

It was a terrible, unstable arrangement, but none of them gave a damn. They just needed to get the hell away from that monster while they still could.

Well, this could’ve gone better.

Phantom floated out of the rubble and carefully examined himself. The explosion had briefly stunned him, but there didn’t seem to be any serious damage.

The ghosts that escaped him were a bigger problem, but there was nothing he could do about it now. He didn’t know which direction they had disappeared to, so he couldn’t chase them down and silence them.

However, there should still be a small window of time before the escapees could warn anyone else, so he could use it to his advantage. Since he was ousted anyway, there was no point in slowly creeping through the shadows. It was time for an all-out assault.

He should pay Walker a visit.

Chapter Text

“Vi ne estas mia amiko! Vi estas monstro!” the furious werewolf snarled.

Phantom barely managed to dodge the swipe of sharp claws. He tried to keep his distance — those things hurt almost as much as the Ghost Gauntlets did — but Wulf was determined to get close and personal.

Phantom hadn’t expected him to attack with such rage. Honestly, he hadn’t expected him to attack at all. He had thought that his past friendship with Wulf would allow him to get close and ambush him.

Apparently, he had miscalculated.

The ghostly werewolf was savage and relentless. His fur was an acrid, ectoplasm-stained mess from Phantom’s attacks, but he completely ignored it, determined to rip him apart.

Even worse, every hit Phantom had managed to avoid left a bright scratch in the fabric of the Ghost Zone. They were surrounded by underdeveloped portals, and Phantom had no idea what would happen if he got caught in one of them.

He found out soon enough. All it took was a single mistake — and Wulf threw him right into the intersection of glowing tears in reality.

It felt like he was being torn apart and pulled in every direction at once. A terrible, dizzying sensation of freefall—

When Phantom woke up, he found himself lying in a forest meadow under the bright blue sky. He was back in the human world and all the portals Wulf had created were gone.

It had been quite a while since Phantom had been in human world. He wasn’t even sure how long: time moved oddly in the Ghost Zone, with no day or night to mark its passage.

Was that enough time for Vlad to rebuild the portal? If the man was still alive, that is.

Regardless, the Fenton portal in Amity Park should be in working condition and reactivating it shouldn’t be too complicated. He had done it by accident before, hadn’t he? And Phantom could still somewhat remember what Vlad had done to turn it off, he just had to repeat it in reverse.

But he had to get to Amity first, and for that he needed to know where he was.

Phantom circled the area in an ever-widening spiral until he noticed a road. Then he simply followed it until he found a gas station.

He landed next to it and called upon an ability that he normally didn’t have much reason to use. A ring of white light formed around his waist and split in two. The halves traveled up and down, changing his shape. When they disappeared, Phantom looked completely human.

He wasn’t, of course. He was still a ghost and this was just a disguise, similar to what Spectra had used when she pretended to be a school counselor. Still, triggering it looked — and felt — similar to switching forms when he had been a halfa. This was how he had first discovered it, actually: like a metaphysical muscle memory.

Phantom didn’t have much reason to use it in the Ghost Zone — everyone knew what his human form looked like and he hadn’t figured out how to mimic someone else’s shape yet — but it should make interacting with humans easier.

He entered the gas station and headed towards the bored-looking cashier.

“Hello. Can you tell me where we are, please?” Phantom asked politely. “And do you have a map here?”

The cashier glanced outside where there were no cars visible and frowned at him. “Kid, did you just walk here? Alone? Where are your parents?”

“My parents are dead,” Phantom replied. “Now, tell me where we are and give me a map.”

“Shit, sorry,” the cashier flinched, once again ignoring the question. “But kid, if you are in some trouble—”

This wasn’t working.

In another flare of white rings, Phantom discarded his disguise. He rose into the air and grabbed the cashier by the throat. “Map. Now.”

Armed with a proper map, Phantom plotted his course. He didn’t need to obey the roads, but following them would ensure he didn’t veer off-course.

As luck would have it, he was much closer to Wisconsin than to Amity, so that was where he went first. When he finally reached his destination, Phantom almost didn’t recognize the castle. It was a ruined mess that was crumbling in on itself.

The ecto-bomb he had thrown inside shouldn’t have been this powerful. Perhaps, it had served as a catalyst that had caused a chain reaction with the portal or some other equipment contained in the lab?

Phantom floated down through the broken roof. He didn’t even need to go intangible to reach the basement. As he expected, the place was a wreck and the portal looked completely unsalvageable. However, all the debris strewn around was inorganic: metal, stone, glass…

There were no traces of the two bodies that should’ve been there.

Which begged the question: was Vlad still alive? Or did someone else come here to remove the corpses?

Vlad did have ghostly staff in his castle and the Dairy King had been lurking somewhere as well. Phantom hadn’t seen much of them when he still lived there, but he knew they had been around. Perhaps, they might know something.

Phantom tasted the air for any trace of ecto-energy. He could detect some faint echoes, but no active ecto-signatures. It seemed that even the ghosts had abandoned this place, which meant that he had no reason to stay there either.

Vlad’s fate would just have to remain a mystery.

Amity Park looked exactly the same as Phantom remembered and it was easy to find the familiar landmarks. The distinct shape of FentonWorks was unmistakable, but rather than head towards it, Phantom found himself in the ruins of the Nasty Burger.

The building itself hadn’t been rebuilt, but there were new additions to the empty lot in front of it.

Phantom silently stared at the statue that depicted his lost friends and family. It was a good rendition, faithfully capturing their images in stone. Written on the pedestal beneath it was “Gone but not forgotten”.

He wondered distantly whether this was supposed to make him feel anything. Despite his lack of emotions, there was still intensity attached to the memories of the people he had once loved. They were his purpose, his ultimate goal, the reason for his existence…

But this? This was just a slab of rock. It meant absolutely nothing to him.

Phantom turned away from the statue. This detour was completely pointless. He needed to stop wasting time and get back to work.

“Danny? Is that you?” a vaguely familiar voice called.

Phantom looked towards it and saw Valerie Gray. It was a good thing that he was currently in his human disguise, otherwise she wouldn’t have acted so friendly. He had to leave quickly without causing undue suspicion: dealing with the Red Huntress was a waste of time and effort.

On the other hand… Valerie was talented and determined. She might be a worthwhile investment.

“That’s me,” Phantom said. “It’s been a while, Valerie.”

They had moved away from the Nasty Burger. Phantom felt only apathy towards that place, but Valerie seemed uncomfortable there. It would be better if she was more at ease. Besides, Phantom needed a secluded place where no one would see them.

While he led Valerie to an old overgrown park that few people visited, she kept asking questions about his life and what he’d been up to after he had left Amity. Phantom answered them, generously mixing truth with lies, and asked his own questions in turn, feigning interest in her mundane life.

Finally, when Phantom was reasonably sure they were alone, he turned the conversation to what he actually wanted to say. “Valerie, I know that you’re the Red Huntress.”

She stuttered and clumsily tried to deny it, but Phantom kept pressing until she was eventually forced to admit it.

“Please, don’t tell anyone,” Valerie quietly begged.

“I won’t,” Phantom assured. That was true: revealing her identity would serve no purpose. “I only brought it up because I have my own secret to tell.”

He called up the glowing rings and adjusted his disguise, transforming into his old ghost form.

Valerie flinched back. “Danny?! You’re the ghost boy?!”

His gamble paid off: Valerie didn’t shoot him on sight. Instead, she demanded answers and Phantom provided them. He told her almost everything, from the moment he became a halfa, up until that fateful explosion.

When he finished, Valerie looked close to tears. “Oh god, Danny, I’m so sorry… You’ve been through so much and I— I just made everything worse.”

“It’s okay. You didn’t know any better.”

“That doesn’t make it right! I don’t know how you can stand being around me when I tried to kill you before!”

“Because I forgive you,” Phantom said.

He didn’t, actually. He lacked the capacity for forgiveness. But he also didn’t care about petty slights and old grievances. All he cared about was whether Valerie would prove to be useful.

Valerie actually started crying after his proclamation. Phantom reached out to embrace her and she readily hugged him back.

“You’re really warm,” she mumbled into is shoulder once the tears subsided. “I thought ghosts were supposed to feel cold?”

“I’m still half-human,” Phantom lied.

He was fairly sure his normal temperature was lower than that of a human, so he had used his fire powers to artificially heat up his body. He had never used them like this before, but it seemed to have worked.

Valerie finally leaned back and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. “Thank you, Danny. Thank you for trusting me with your secret. I promise you won’t regret it.”

That was true. Regardless of where this decision would lead him, Phantom was incapable of feeling regret.

They had eventually left the park and went to FentonWorks. Phantom didn't have the keys, so he had to phase inside to find the spares.

Rather than the trepidation he had expected, Valerie showed only excitement at this display of ghost powers. For a ghost hunter, she really was far too trusting.

And stubborn.

“But why do you have to do this alone? I can go with you!” Valerie insisted while Phantom fiddled with the portal, trying to figure out where each wire went. “I can help you fight this… Pariah.”

“Because I’m not planning on fighting him yet,” Phantom explained. “Right now, I’m just studying him, and trying to learn his weaknesses. And also looking for ways to grow stronger myself. I actually found something that might work, so don’t be surprised if my ghost form looks different the next time you see me, okay? It’s just something that happens when ghosts get stronger.”

This disguise was relatively easy to create and sustain, but it was still a drain on his energy. Being in his own shape would be easier.

“Okay, but… I could help you search too, you know,” Valerie suggested.

“Don’t you have school? And your dad would worry if you disappeared for too long,” Phantom pointed out. “I don’t have this issue.”

Valerie cringed. “That’s not a good thing, Danny! You deserve to have someone who would worry about you. …I still can’t believe your guardian is letting you do this.”

“Vlad knows about my powers and he trusts that I can handle myself,” Phantom lied.

He hadn’t told Valerie about Vlad formerly being a halfa and his enemy, just in case she decided to confront him and saw the wreck of the castle. It would invite too many questions.

Phantom connected the last wire and pulled the main switch. The portal remained inactive.

…Ah, right. He flipped the switch off and walked into the portal. Then he pressed the ON button that was inside it.

The metal frame hummed with energy around him, bringing old memories to the forefront of his mind. This was how it had all begun, wasn’t it?

Phantom backed away from the portal and pulled the switch again. This time, the portal came to life, tearing open the gateway between worlds.

“Wow…” Valerie breathed out. “It’s really eerie… but also kinda beautiful.”

Phantom didn’t have an opinion on the portal’s aesthetics, only its usefulness.

“Once I’m through, you have to close the doors behind me,” Phantom said. He pointed at the lock. “Here. If you don’t, other ghosts will be able to get out and attack Amity.”

He didn’t care whether this town was razed to the ground, but chasing down escapees would make his hunt harder.

Valerie looked completely taken aback. “But what about you?! How are you going to get out of the Ghost Zone?”

He hadn’t been planning to, but if he wanted to use Valerie as an ally, he needed to keep an eye on her. As a human armed with ghost-hunting weapons, she had some potential. Pariah was used to fighting other ghosts, but a ghost hunter would have a unique edge over him.

Investing some time and effort into Valerie’s development might be worth it. And if this arrangement became too inconvenient, he could easily get rid of her.

“Let’s make a schedule.”

It took some arguing, but eventually they had managed to find a compromise. Valerie would briefly open the doors at a scheduled time every week, so that Phantom could return for a check-in. If he didn’t, Valerie threatened to go to the Ghost Zone herself and drag him out by the scruff of his neck.

“I still don’t like it,” Valerie muttered sullenly as Phantom prepared to leave.

He put his hands on her shoulders and tried to make his expression into something earnest. “I know, but you’re the only person I can trust with this, Valerie. I trust you to protect Amity, so please, trust that I can handle myself in the Ghost Zone.”

Valerie was silent for a moment, making Phantom wonder whether she believed his performance. Then she pulled him into a hug. “I trust you, Danny. And I swear, I’ll keep training every day, so that when this Pariah spook breaks out, we’ll kick his butt together!”

Once Danny left, Valerie closed the doors behind him. She hated it — it felt like she was trapping Danny in there, with all those evil ghosts — but she had made a promise.

She didn’t want to disappoint Danny. Valerie had hurt him enough already.

She had tried to kill her classmate, a fellow human being… It made her sick to even think about.

And yet, he still trusted her: with his secret, with the portal, with the keys to his home… He trusted her to protect Amity and to watch his back in the future battle against Pariah Dark.

Valerie refused to break that trust.

She left FentonWorks with the keys clutched tightly in her hand and new determination burning in her heart.

Chapter Text

Between her work, school, and training, the week flew by in a blink of an eye, and Valerie once again found herself standing in front of the Fenton portal.

This time, she was wearing her battle suit and holding an ecto-gun in hand. Valerie opened the heavy blast doors and took aim. If some ghost wanted to break out while she was waiting for Danny, she would be ready.

Minutes ticked by agonizingly slowly, until she finally saw a faint shadow moving closer through the swirling green. When the ghost floated out, Valerie nearly shot him on sight. It was only the familiar emblem on his chest that stayed her hand.

“Danny?” she asked suspiciously.

Glowing white rings formed around his waist and changed him back to the human boy she knew. “Yep, just me.”

Valerie sighed in relief and lowered her gun. “Sorry. I know you have warned me, but I had no idea what you were going to look like.”

Danny scratched the back of his head with an awkward smile. “Sorry about that. I had to stay in ghost form until I got out: it’s kinda hard to move through the Ghost Zone as a human.”

Last time, Danny had been downright expressionless and his voice had been mostly flat monotone. Not that Valerie could blame him — she had found him next to the memorial of his family and friends and the conversation afterwards had been emotionally draining — but it was good to see him regain some of his spirit.

“Can you show me again?” Valerie asked. She needed to get a better look at him to make sure that there wouldn’t be a repeat.

Danny nodded and transformed. His jumpsuit and the overall shape of his body remained the same, but his face looked very different: blue skin, red eyes, pointed ears, and that hair…

“Is this real fire?” Valerie asked curiously.

Danny ran his fingers through the white flames. “I’m not sure, actually. Feels different.” He shrugged. “You can touch it if you want to.”

Valerie was too curious to say no to that. She took off her right glove and held her hand next to the flame. She felt warmth emanating from it, but it didn’t feel as hot as real fire should’ve been.

She quickly brushed her fingertips through the very edges. When that didn’t burn her, Valerie caught a flickering strand between her fingers. It did feel similar to regular hair, but smoother and more ethereal. Feeling bolder, Valerie dug her fingers deeper, enjoying the feeling of silken strands sliding over her skin.

It took her far too long to realize that playing with Danny’s hair like this wasn’t exactly appropriate. Her cheeks burned in embarrassment and she quickly jerked her hand away.

Danny blinked at her innocently. “Is there something wrong?”

Valerie laughed nervously. “Nope! Nothing wrong!”

Danny tilted his head to the side. “Does it bother you? The way I look.”

Valerie immediately shook her head. “It doesn’t, I swear. I don’t care what you look like: you’re still Danny to me.”

Honestly, Valerie had always thought that Danny was kinda cute. And while his new features were odd, they didn’t look half-bad.

Valerie grinned and grabbed his hand. “Now, come on! I’ve been training for a whole week, and I wanna show you my new tricks!”

She wanted him to see the results of her hard work. She wanted to show that she could handle herself in a fight.

She wanted to prove that she was good enough to stand at his side.

Ironically, reactivating the Fenton portal turned out to be completely unnecessary. Phantom had soon discovered that he could create portals between the Ghost Zone and the human world with his own powers.

It didn’t look or feel the same way as when Wulf did it, hence why Phantom hadn’t realized he had this ability at first. Rather than clawing through the fabric of reality, he could press on the wall between worlds, thinning it out until a doorway opened. Phantom didn’t care about the human world, aside from checking on Valerie’s progress, but since he could direct the exit point of his portals anywhere he wanted, they made for a convenient shortcut.

Unfortunately, Valerie had decided that this new mobility meant he could afford to return more often. She also kept bringing him food, even though Phantom had already told her that the ambient energy of the Ghost Zone was enough to sustain him. Valerie insisted that he was still half-human and thus needed human food. After all, she had never seen him skipping meals in school before, hadn’t she?

Phantom didn’t want to arouse any suspicion, so he had no choice but to accept, even though human food was less than useless to him now. He couldn’t digest regular matter, he could only disintegrate it in his stomach, and that made him lose energy, not gain it.

Combined with how exhausting it was for Phantom to constantly fake emotions that he was incapable of feeling, it made him seriously contemplate whether this was all worth it. It was only Valerie’s determination and rapidly improving fighting skills that convinced him to continue this charade. No matter how tiring it was, going along with her petty desires would make her easier to manipulate.

Fortunately, he had finally found the information he needed about duplication. His technique really had been wrong: he wasn’t supposed to split his mind between both copies simultaneously, he needed to focus his consciousness inside one of them and simply give mental orders to the other.

Phantom distantly wondered why he hadn’t figured it out himself. Perhaps, he had simply been trying too hard.

Still, now that he knew the trick, he could get more work done and ensure that he wasn’t wasting too much time on Valerie.

Valerie had only been in the Ghost Zone once before: when that weird hunter ghost trapped Danny and her on a jungle island. And back then, she had been more preoccupied with getting out of that place alive than sightseeing.

So after Danny had developed his portal skill, Valerie convinced him to give her a tour of the Ghost Zone. Granted, she could’ve entered it on her own through the Fenton portal, but she didn’t want to leave it open without supervision, lest some evil ghost escaped to wreak havoc on her hometown.

And now, here she was.

“It’s a lot emptier than I remember,” Valerie admitted.

The Ghost Zone was mostly green nothingness with some objects suspended weightlessly in it. Some chunks of rock, some gnarled trees… and a lot of doors.

Valerie flew up to the closest one and lightly knocked on its frame. It was startlingly normal — just a regular wooden door that wouldn’t have looked out of place in her own home. “And what’s with all the doors?”

“They are shortcuts,” Danny said. He floated closer and grabbed the doorknob, opening the door.

Valerie blinked in surprise. Behind it was not the same green expanse. Instead, it was a large rocky canyon with a sluggish river at the bottom.

“Wow… So, all these doors are some kind of portals?”

“Yes, only they lead to different parts of the Ghost Zone and not the human world,” Danny explained. “That’s why it’s so hard to navigate. And also because all the landmarks are floating and can just shift around at random.”

“What about ghosts? With how often they used to attack Amity, I thought they’d be everywhere.”

Danny shook his head, his fiery hair flickering with the movement. “Everyone who wanted to escape usually waited right next to the portal for their chance to get out. And those who didn’t would rather stay in their own lairs.”

“Lairs?” Valerie repeated curiously.

“A place infused with the ghost’s own energy. Some build their own, others claim existing places that don’t belong to anyone.”

“Huh… Do you have a lair?”

Danny smiled, showing the sharp tips of his fangs. “I do. Do you want to see it?”

“Heck, yeah!”

They took a brief detour through the human world — Danny’s directional portals were an amazing skill that Valerie was admittedly a little jealous of — and appeared inside his lair.

Which was a library, of all things.

Valerie was a little surprised by that — she never took him for a bookworm — but Danny explained that he hadn’t built it, he just took over a place that seemed sufficiently comfortable.

“I guess you can’t be too picky in the Ghost Zone,” Valerie mused. She retracted her armor and curled up on a couch that was hidden in a small nook between the shelves. “But it’s still pretty cozy.”

She patted the couch in invitation and Danny sat down next to her. Valerie leaned against his shoulder, soaking in the warmth he radiated.

“Have you ever shown your lair to anyone else?” she asked idly.

To her surprise, Danny shook his head. “No, you are the first person I brought here since I claimed this place.”

“Not even—”

Valerie couldn’t finish the sentence. The names of her former classmates stuck to her tongue.

Danny understood her anyway. “No, not even them.”

And yet, he showed it to her. His trust in her was overwhelming.

Valerie covered his hand with her own. “Thank you, Danny. It means a lot to me.” Their fingers intertwined, and it gave her the courage to continue. “You mean a lot to me.”

Valerie cupped the side of his face, her fingers sinking into the white flames of his hair. She slowly leaned closer, giving Danny enough time to move away if he wanted to, and kissed him.

Danny didn’t respond at first, but then his lips parted, and Valerie felt the forked tip of his tongue flicker softly against her own. She kissed him with new vigor and the scrape of sharp fangs against her lips only spurred her on.

When they parted, Valerie was completely out of breath, but Danny looked stoic and unruffled.

“Valerie—” Danny started to say and his voice sounded apologetic.

Her heart sank. Oh, no…

Valerie wanted to hit herself. Of course he didn’t feel the same way towards her! Who in their right mind would want to kiss the person who had tried to murder them?

She scrambled away, nearly falling off the couch in her haste. “I’m so sorry, Danny, I won’t do this again, I swear! I’ll just— I’ll leave and—”

Danny grabbed her hand. “Valerie, wait. You mean a lot to me too—”

She did?!

“—It’s just… now is not a good time.”

That wasn’t a ‘no’.

Valerie’s heart fluttered with hope. “What do you mean?”

“You deserve someone who would always put you first. And I can’t do that until Pariah is no longer a threat.”

“I’d never ask you to!” Valerie protested. “I understand, Danny, I really do. You have so much responsibility on your shoulders… I want to help you, not add to that.”

Danny still looked uncertain.

‘Stop being selfish,’ Valerie told herself sternly. He had been through hell already, she had to support him, not push her desires on him.

She clasped his hand in both of hers. “If you want to wait, that’s okay. I can wait. And if you want us to stay just friends… that’s okay too. I won’t push.”

Danny lifted their joined hands and kissed her knuckles. “I like you, Valerie. You are a great friend, and when this is all over… I’d like to see if we could be something more.”

Valerie smiled at him, her heart bursting with happiness. “It’s a date.”

Playing along with Valerie's romantic fantasy had seemed like a good idea at the time. Actually dating her would've been unacceptably time-consuming — and without any shred of humanity left within him, Phantom doubted he would've been able to fake infatuation convincingly enough — but a mere promise didn't cost him anything.

Valerie had agreed to wait until Pariah was dealt with. And after that, his goal would be fulfilled and nothing would matter anymore.

Unfortunately, the charade hadn't managed to last that long.

It was supposed to be a routine check-in. Phantom had opened a portal to the living room of his old home and found Valerie already waiting there for him. That on its own wasn't so strange: FentonWorks was where Phantom preferred to appear and Valerie did have the spare keys he had found. What was unusual, however, was the cold expression on her face.

He had seen Valerie tired or annoyed before, but whenever she saw him, her expression never failed to lighten. But now she was glaring daggers at him, and… glancing at some device in her hands?

It looked vaguely familiar. Hadn't he seen it somewhere before?

Phantom faked a smile. "Hey, Val… Tough day?"

"Turn human," she ordered, voice cold.

Ever since Phantom showed her his real form, she didn't seem to have a problem with it. Something was definitely wrong here.

She kept glancing at the device. Wasn't that a scanner…?

"Sure thing," Phantom replied.

Outwardly, he remained nonchalant, but inside he was readying himself for a battle. From the moment he figured out the trick to duplication, he had been practicing it extensively. It still required a lot of focus, but he had learned how to conceal the process. As he formed his human disguise around himself, Phantom split off an invisible duplicate. He swapped places with it and hovered close to the ceiling.

Valerie's expression twisted, until Phantom wasn't even sure what it was showing. Her battle armor unfolded and she blasted his duplicate from the weapon that formed on her right arm. It wasn't fast enough to dodge and the pale light shredded its disguise apart.

Phantom flinched, feeling an echo of its pain. Even though it had a separate body, the duplicate was still connected to him.

Valerie screamed in rage and Phantom could see tears in her eyes. She aimed at his duplicate again and it barely managed to dodge the next blast of what he now recognized as the modified Fenton Peeler.

Where did she even get this thing? He thought Vlad had taken everything—

Vlad.

He was still alive and in contact with Valerie.

That was unfortunate. Phantom had invested a lot of time and effort in Valerie, but if Vlad had gotten to her, he doubted he'd be able to salvage the situation. It was better to cut his losses now.

Phantom dove through the floor into the basement while his duplicate played distraction. He put his hands on the Fenton portal and sent electricity into it, shorting out its internal components. Since his plan with Valerie failed, he had no need to stay in the human world. And he certainly didn't need to leave behind an easy way for anyone to pursue him into the Ghost Zone.

Though if Vlad was still alive, he might be able to repair the portal. It was better to be thorough.

Phantom called fire to his hands, steadily increasing its heat. A melted portal wouldn't be easy to rebuild.

While he was busy with that, his duplicate led Valerie on a wild goose chase across Amity Park. She was a dangerous enemy, and while the duplicate was completely expendable, it had to last long enough to give Phantom the time he needed to destroy the portal.

"Valerie, please, just let me explain!" the duplicate begged, trying to appeal to her emotions as the enraged ghost huntress unloaded her entire arsenal at it.

"I have nothing to talk about with a lying monster like you!" Valerie screamed.

"Monster? What are you talking about? I thought you didn't care that I'm half-ghost? C'mon, Val, it's me, Danny!"

"Don't you dare say his name! You're not Danny! You're just a ghost and you murdered him! Mr. Masters has told me everything! He showed me the recordings! I saw what you did to Danny!"

If she really knew that he had killed Danny, there was no way Phantom could convince her to stand down. He ordered his duplicate to stop talking and start fighting back. If it killed Valerie, it would be one less threat for him to worry about. If not…

Phantom refocused on the Fenton portal that was already half-melted from the intense heat of his flames. He created an ecto-bomb and shoved it into the mess, quickly covering himself with a shield to keep the resulting explosion from affecting him.

Once he deemed the Fenton portal to be damaged enough, he opened one of his own and turned his attention back to his duplicate that was still distracting Valerie. It had already suffered some damage from the enraged Red Huntress. Continuing this fight would be pointless.

Phantom dissolved the duplicate and reabsorbed its energy. Then he stepped through the portal and closed it behind him.

Both Vlad and Valerie were loose ends, but without an easy way into the Ghost Zone, they were both harmless to him. Phantom had better things to do than waste time to take care of them.

Chapter Text

The tiny fragment of a medieval kingdom tucked away in the depths of the Ghost Zone was an interesting find. Most of its inhabitants were weak and the energy of their cores was but a drop in the ocean, but the two dragons that appeared out of nowhere had managed to put up some fight.

With their massive size, dense scales, and immunity to fire, they were formidable enemies, but in the end, they were still no match for Phantom.

He swallowed the core he had ripped out of the black dragon, while his duplicates kept the blue dragon restrained, waiting for its turn. The core dissolved into energy, giving him more power, but it felt strangely underwhelming.

Considering how much trouble the ghost had given him, Phantom had expected its core to be stronger. Or was the dragon actually weaker than it seemed? It could have been simply a bad match-up against his own fire powers.

Something glistened in the pool of ectoplasm that the dragon’s body had melted into. Phantom silently gestured at it, focusing a drop of energy on the object — a new power he had recently developed. A golden amulet shaped like a dragon’s eye floated out. He pulled the amulet closer and rotated it in his telekinetic grip. He could feel powerful energy radiating from it.

So the dragon’s power hadn’t been its own?

Phantom floated towards the other dragon. His duplicates had broken its wings and wrapped its limbs and snout in ecto-ropes. At his silent command, the duplicates grabbed the dragon by its horns and twisted its head to the side. On its neck, Phantom could see an identical amulet.

He ripped the amulet off and watched the dragon shrink in size, transforming into a plain-looking humanoid ghost. Now too small for the restraints, the ghost tried to escape, but Phantom was much faster, easily catching her again.

“Tell me everything you know about these amulets and I will let you go.”

The ghost — princess Dorathea, apparently — had refused to say anything at first, even after Phantom severed a few fingers, so he tried a different approach. He sent his duplicates to search the kingdom and bring in any ghosts that still remained there. Then he ripped them apart one by one and devoured their cores right in front of her.

Dorathea had cracked quickly after that, promising to tell him everything if he just spared her remaining subjects.

Her knowledge was subpar. The amulets were a family relic, but she had no idea how they had been created. And she had also claimed that only the members of her bloodline could control this power: anyone else would turn into a near-mindless raging beast.

Phantom took her core afterwards, along with those of her subjects. There was no reason to let any of them continue existing.

He stared contemplatively at the two amulets and wondered whether using them would be worth the risk. Dorathea had seemed honest enough, but Phantom didn’t trust his own ability to discern truth from lies. She could’ve been just lying in an attempt to stop him from getting more powerful.

But if her warning was true… Phantom couldn’t risk losing his mind. Even trying it on his duplicates would be too dangerous: they were still connected to him after all.

Perhaps, there was some other way to access the power within the amulets? Absorb their energy like he absorbed ghost cores?

He needed to do more research.

All the information he could find corroborated what Dorathea had told him. Unlike lairs which were merely infused with a ghost’s energy, artifacts were created from it. A lair could be taken over, but trying to do the same with an artifact would either not work at all or destroy it.

And an artifact could only be properly wielded by the ghost who created it or by those they gave permission to. For anyone else, it would either work at a fraction of its power or cause dangerous side-effects.

There wasn’t much information about how to create them, but theoretically, all artifacts were made from ecto-energy, so it should be possible to free that energy and absorb it.

He needed to find more artifacts to test it on.

Unlike regular objects, artifacts had a rather distinct feel to them that Phantom’s evolved ghost sense could easily detect. It didn’t take him all that long to raid the empty lairs of the ghosts he had already destroyed and find a few artifacts.

Many of his powers worked on instinct. If he tried, he might be able to trigger a new ability.

After several attempts, Phantom had figured it out. Breaking an artifact released the energy within, and if he was fast enough, he could absorb it. He had tried different methods, but the one that felt the most natural to him was digging his fangs into an artifact until it cracked and inhaling the freed energy. His fangs were aching by the time he finished, but it was worth it.

Hunting ghosts was becoming less and less effective. They hid from him, requiring far too much time and effort to catch, and the energy of their cores didn’t add much to his own. Although powerful artifacts were rare, they could be a new avenue to explore.

Not to mention, according to his research, Pariah Dark had two dangerous artifacts: the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage. Information about their origins was scarce, but they could only be wielded by the rightful ruler of the Ghost Zone and had the power to match. If Phantom could deprive Pariah of that power and steal it for himself…

Unfortunately, the Crown couldn’t be reached. The records said that Pariah had still been wearing it when he had been locked in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep. Phantom would try to grab it if he had the opportunity, but that would only happen after Pariah broke free, and he wanted to postpone that moment for as long as possible.

The Ring, on the other hand, was accessible. He just had to find the Skeleton Key that could unlock its containment.

The Skeleton Key had a spirit guarding it: a massive four-armed beast with spiky red hide. It towered over Phantom, huge enough to crush him in one hand, but he had destroyed it like any other ghost.

As he flew towards Pariah’s Keep with the key in hand, Phantom wondered if this was a sign that he needed to stop chasing regular ghosts and switch to hunting spirits instead. His time wasn’t limitless, and the day Pariah broke free was drawing closer.

Phantom hovered next to the sarcophagus in contemplative silence. The crack in its side had grown significantly larger, branching out in every direction. Phantom could taste the raw power and malice of the imprisoned king emanating from it.

Even now, despite everything he had done, Phantom still felt far beneath it. Despair was a foreign concept to him now, but realizing how far he still was from his goal made him uncomfortable.

He was running out of time.

Phantom turned away from the massive coffin and flew down, towards the skeleton that held the Ring of Rage. The Skeleton Key had easily unlocked and dissolved its containment sphere, allowing Phantom to grab the artifact.

He bit into it, but his fangs didn’t even scratch the surface.

He expected that. The stronger an artifact was, the more damage it could withstand before its defenses dropped down enough for him to absorb it.

Phantom called lightning to his hands, steadily increasing the charge. The Ring of Rage flared in response, but Phantom was stronger, and eventually it began to crack. He bit into the ring, shoving one of his fangs through the crack, and inhaled deeply, sucking in the freed energy. He nearly choked on the amount of power contained within it, but he ignored the burning pain and kept draining the artifact until it was nothing but dust.

His hair flared brighter and his core pulsed stronger as the power settled inside him. The Ring of Rage held far more energy than any other artifact he had ever drained.

Most importantly, Pariah wouldn’t be able to use it now.

Phantom silently stared at the second skeleton, the one that was holding a purple pumpkin with a sword stuck in it. From what he remembered, removing the sword would summon the Fright Knight.

And that was where things got interesting.

According to every record Phantom could get his hands on, the Fright Knight was not loyal to Pariah. He did serve the king, but it was more out of obligation and fear than true loyalty.

Which meant, it might be possible for Phantom to subvert him.

But was it worth the trouble? It was hard to judge how powerful the Fright Knight really was, when Phantom had only his own memories to go on. He might turn out to be too weak to bother with.

On the other hand, the Fright Knight was supposed to be Pariah’s right-hand man. He might be useful for information, if nothing else.

And yet, Phantom was still hesitating. That disaster with Valerie had shown him quite clearly that he wasn’t good enough at manipulating others. With how long he had been without emotions, he might actually be getting worse.

For all he knew, the Fright Knight might suddenly regain his loyalty and try to free Pariah himself.

That settled it. It was worth a try, but too risky to attempt until Pariah was on the cusp of breaking out anyway. For now, it was better for the Fright Knight to remain sealed.

Day after day, month after month, Phantom threw himself from one hunt into another. He no longer bothered to attack ghosts, ignoring the survivors unless they were stupid enough to cross his path. Instead, he focused solely on spirits.

With their unique abilities and significant power level, fighting spirits was a dangerous venture. Phantom had learned to be cautious, always leaving a duplicate behind in his lair, so that he had something to escape into if things went wrong.

But he never stopped, and one by one, the spirits fell by his hand. He fed on their essence, growing ever-stronger.

And the sarcophagus kept getting weaker, barely able to contain the King of All Ghosts.

The day of reckoning was approaching.

Something was wrong with his growth.

Every book he had studied said that ghosts were supposed to change their form when they gained enough power. Phantom had changed when he had absorbed Plasmius, but that was all. No matter how many ghosts and spirits he had devoured since then, no matter how many artifacts he had drained, he remained the same.

Perhaps, this kind of evolution could only happen once. Or maybe his increase in power hadn’t been drastic enough to trigger it.

But Phantom didn’t have the leisure to figure it out. The time to act was now.

The Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep was covered fully in a spiderweb of cracks. Phantom could sense the incredible power of the mad king churning beneath.

He still didn’t feel ready for this confrontation, but his opinion didn’t matter. It was going to happen, there was no way around it. All he could do was try to tilt the scales in his favor.

Phantom grabbed the Soul Shredder sword and pulled it out of the pumpkin it was stuck in. He felt the containment seal shatter and the Fright Knight burst into existence in an explosion of green energy.

“The Fright Knight lives!” He narrowed his eyes at Phantom and lit a purple flame in his hand. “And we meet again, ghost child.”

“I’m not here to fight,” Phantom said, dodging the attack. “Look behind you.”

“Only a fool would take his eyes off his opponent,” the Fright Knight scoffed.

Phantom didn’t have time for this. “Pariah Dark is about to break free.”

Despite his proclamation, the Fright Knight flinched and turned around. Even at the distance, the cracks in the enchanted coffin were clearly visible.

“No-no-no, what have you done, you foolish child?!” the Fright Knight cried.

“That had nothing to do with me. Did you really expect that sarcophagus to contain him forever?”

The Fright Knight was frozen in place and trembling slightly. It was clear to Phantom that the records hadn’t lied: he was terrified of Pariah.

“I don’t want him to walk free. I don’t want him to raze the world. I can see that you don't want that either.”

“…What does it even matter?” the Fright Knight whispered in abject despair. “The Ancients had sacrificed themselves to stop him, and it still didn’t work. What chance would someone like me have against him?”

“Not just you.”

“You think that you can defeat the King of All Ghosts?! You had barely managed to stop me!”

“That was then. I’m much stronger now.”

The Fright Knight shook his head. “Do you have any idea how many ghosts have claimed the same? All have perished in the end.”

“And how many of them had insider knowledge?” Phantom asked. “You have served Pariah for centuries. You must know at least something.”

The Fright Knight laughed bitterly. “Is that why you have freed me, you little fool? Did you really think that he would ever tell a lowly lackey like me anything? I know nothing. And even if I did, what makes you think I would ever turn against my king?”

Well, there went that idea.

Phantom bared his fangs and scoffed with derision he was incapable of feeling. “So you’re just a coward, then? You’d rather remain his plaything for the rest of eternity than try to fight back?”

The Fright Knight hovered silently in the air, staring at the sarcophagus. Phantom was just as silent, waiting for him to make a decision.

“…Better a plaything than a victim,” the Fright Knight finally said.

And before Phantom could stop him, he blasted the sarcophagus into pieces.

Phantom didn't waste precious seconds to gawk at the giant form of the King of All Ghosts who had collapsed on the dais. He pulled on the Crown of Fire with his powers, but it didn't even budge. Some kind of defences against telekinesis? Phantom didn't bother trying again. Instead, he lunged at Pariah with all the speed he was capable of and snatched the Crown from his head with his own hands.

A massive hand clamped around his body in a crushing grip. He struggled to break free, but the burning energy around it prevented him from phasing away.

Phantom split off a duplicate and transferred his consciousness into it. Then he grabbed the Crown and bolted away, leaving his copy behind to distract Pariah.

Phantom didn’t stop his flight as he hit the Crown with electricity. He had to hurry — he could feel his duplicate growing weaker with every second. The Crown of Fire cracked and Phantom quickly bit into the artifact, absorbing its energy until it turned to dust in his hands.

He heard Pariah bellow in rage behind him and immediately felt his duplicate vanish from his awareness.

Phantom bared his fangs and turned around to face the mad king.

He had been preparing for this battle from the moment of his creation. It was time to see how well he fared against his ultimate enemy.

The Fright Knight stayed on the sidelines, silently watching the battle of titans. Pariah hadn’t called upon him, and the last thing he wanted was to become collateral.

And in truth… he didn’t want to help the king.

The ghost child was strong, far more than the Fright Knight remembered from their own confrontation. He had stolen the Crown of Fire — stolen and destroyed it — something the Fright Knight had thought to be impossible.

For a moment there, he had almost dared to hope.

But even without the Crown and the Ring, the Ghost King was unmatched in battle. Phantom fought valiantly, but his every attack simply glanced off Pariah’s armor and the duplicates he created only prompted the king to summon his own reinforcements.

Constructed from Pariah’s own energy, the skeletal army was relentless. For every skeleton Phantom destroyed, two more took its place. And the Ghost King himself never let off, determined to obliterate the thief who took his treasured artifacts.

One by one, the duplicates were destroyed until only the original remained. Pariah caught him with a sadistic grin, ready to rip the ghost child in half and devour his core—

And Phantom dissolved, vanishing into the ether.

It had been just another duplicate.

Pariah roared in rage and the skeletal army roared with him. “No one escapes from Pariah Dark! That thief will taste my vengeance!”

The Fright Knight trembled when the Ghost King’s attention turned to him. He knelt before the monster he served, silently praying to be spared from his wrath.

“Fright Knight,” Pariah growled. His voice was steadier now, but still brimming with barely contained fury. “Tell me what you know about that impudent whelp.”

The Fright Knight didn’t dare lie. “My liege, that foolish ghost that dared to attack you is known as Danny Phantom: a half-breed who lives in the world of the humans.”

“I have not concerned myself with the human world before,” Pariah mused with a malicious grin. “Perhaps, it is time to rectify this oversight.”

His fingers curled like claws, digging into the air in front of him. And with a single gesture, Pariah tore through the fabric of reality, ripping open a passage between dimensions.

“It is time to remind everyone who truly rules the world.”

Chapter Text

How long had it been since he had lost the battle with Pariah? Phantom was starting to lose count.

He had survived the initial confrontation due to his habit of leaving a spare duplicate behind before any dangerous battle. Since then, he had been constantly on the run. He had been forced to learn new tricks: how to turn into mist that blended in with the very air of the Ghost Zone, how to disguise himself as anyone he wanted, how to suppress his ecto-signature to fool even the most sophisticated scanners…

He hadn’t been able to do much more than that.

Pariah Dark was still as unbeatable as before, and that was when he even bothered to enter the battlefield, which happened less and less frequently. In the beginning, he had attacked both human and ghost worlds personally, obliterating entire cities in seconds. The destruction he had wrought was vast — most human countries and ghost realms had simply ceased to exist — but there were still survivors left who hid behind ghost shields and esoteric defenses.

And it seemed that at some point, Pariah had gotten bored of mindless destruction. Now he mostly stayed in his castle surrounded by impenetrable defenses and left the war in the hands of the Fright Knight and his endless armies.

And dimensional rifts.

At first, the portals Pariah had opened between the Ghost Zone and the human world to let his armies march through were no different from those Phantom could create himself. But at some point, this had changed. Rifts weren’t mere doorways: they caused catastrophic collisions, crushing together the pieces of two worlds and damaging the few remaining pockets of resistance even further.

And they didn’t close. They just kept growing.

At one point, Phantom had tried to close them himself, but nothing had worked. His own portals could only exist for as long as he kept feeding energy into them. The moment he stopped, they closed automatically.

The rifts felt like reality itself was being torn at the seams. No matter what Phantom did, he couldn’t stitch it together.

Eventually, he had stopped trying. Instead, he lay low, waiting for an opportunity to strike and letting others take a shot at the Ghost King.

The Red Huntress was one such person. Strong and skilled and determined, she could take down an entire army by herself. And unlike Phantom, she had never stopped trying. Every time she had been forced to retreat behind the ghost shield that surrounded Amity Park, she would soon return and attack again.

Phantom had approached her once, proposing an alliance against their common foe. He had barely recognized her back then: Valerie was a grown woman, while Phantom still looked fourteen.

Valerie vehemently refused and tried to shoot him, blaming him for the destruction of this world.

It wasn’t a baseless accusation. When Pariah had first arrived to the human world, he had presented an ultimatum, demanding Phantom to be handed over to him. When that didn’t happen, he started the war that was still raging to this day.

Predictably, everything had been blamed on Phantom for refusing to surrender. Combined with all his previous actions, it ensured that no one would be willing to ally with him, even against a threat as great as Pariah.

Not even Clockwork.

Phantom had searched for the Master of Time, but the Clock Tower was nowhere to be found. He didn’t even know whether their deal was still in effect, but on the off chance it was, Phantom had to keep going. He had to find some way to defeat Pariah.

It was the only reason he still had for existing. Nothing else mattered to him.

How long had it been since the world ended? Valerie was starting to lose count.

Weeks, months, years… It was all blurring together into an endless nightmare. And she was one of the lucky ones.

Amity Park was no stranger to ghost attacks, so when Pariah Dark had first showed up, no one had thought it was just a hoax and no one had been stupid enough to protest when Valerie activated the ghost shield around the town.

That shield created by Jack and Maddie Fenton was the only thing that had allowed Amity to not just survive Pariah’s assault, but thrive in the safety it provided. The Fentons might be gone, but they were still protecting their hometown. Mr. Masters and the Guys in White had helped to develop the ghost shield further until Amity Park became the safest place in the entire world.

There wasn’t much of the world left outside.

Sometimes, it still didn’t feel real. Apocalypse was just a word thrown around in fiction, not something that could happen in reality.

And yet, it did.

Valerie silently watched the distant towers that produced the rippling blue energy of the ghost shield. Beyond that barrier, there was nothing but ruins stretching to the horizon in every direction. She knew that somewhere out there were other islands of peace, hidden behind their own defenses, but they were few and far in-between.

The world as she knew it was gone.

Then again, her world had ended even earlier, when the boy she had been in love with turned out to have been dead all along while his murderer pretended to be him, manipulating her to his own ends.

It had been almost a decade since then, and Valerie still couldn’t understand why. At least Pariah was straightforward in his atrocities, but nothing Phantom had done made any sense to her.

Or maybe that was the whole point. Maybe he was simply an insane monster reveling in the pain of others, just like any other ghost.

All of them were nothing more than evil beasts. Danny had been the sole exception, and even that was only because he had been half-human. Without any humanity to hold him back, Phantom had shown his true colors. The recordings Mr. Masters had shown her had been damaged in the explosion, but she had seen enough.

She had seen Phantom get close to Danny only to murder him like the monster he was. She had seen the ruins of the castle, the remnants of the explosion he had caused.

She had seen the coroner's report and the photos attached to it.

Danny was dead and it hurt all the more to know that his murderer had managed to fool her so thoroughly. Oh, how Valerie wished to rip him apart, to pay him back for what he had done—

“Are you still up, honey?”

Valerie turned away from the window, pulled out of her vengeful thoughts. “Just thinking, dad.”

“Well, don’t stay up too late. We wouldn’t want you to fall asleep mid-flight, would we?”

She smiled. “Dad, I’m twenty-four, not ten.”

Her father smiled back and ruffled her short hair. “Yes, yes, you’re a big strong ghost huntress now… And still my little girl. I can’t help but worry about you.”

He did far more than worry.

Years ago, when the war had only recently begun and Valerie lacked the experience she had now, she had gotten too arrogant in battle. Her weapons allowed her to obliterate regular skeleton warriors with ease, and so she had thought that the undead dragons would be easy to destroy as well.

She had been wrong.

Her jet sled had been damaged and she had been forced to hide in the ruins around Amity, unable to reach the safety of the ghost shield. She would’ve died there, but her father and several GIW agents had charged in and saved her.

She had survived, but her father had paid dearly for it. He had lost an arm and an eye, and even though he had never blamed her for it, Valerie had never forgiven herself.

But she wasn’t going to let it stop her either. She had learned from her mistakes.

She was cautious now, always ready to run if the danger seemed too great. She was the best fighter Amity Park had and retreating from battle wasn’t a loss if it allowed her to live and fight another day.

In this hell of a world, merely surviving already counted as a win.

But Valerie still couldn’t stop herself from hoping for more. No matter how powerful Pariah was, there had to be a way to stop him.

Amity Park was the biggest center of ghost research in the entire world. Ecto-weapons had been around for more than a decade and technology had improved greatly since then. Pariah had shrugged off everything they could throw at him, but there had to be something he was vulnerable to. They just had to find it.

The fate of the world depended on it.

Hidden between the threads of time, Clockwork watched the destruction unfold. Years of death and ruin spread before his eyes and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

He hated it. And he hated all the more the fact that he had known this was going to happen all along.

Phantom was never meant to win against Pariah.

Not like this.

Clockwork felt a bony arm loop around him. Sharp claws tapped on the glass embedded in his chest.

It was an annoying feeling. Uncomfortable. Distracting.

Grounding.

“Any orders, Watcher?” Clockwork asked.

Watcher rested their head on his shoulder. “No. The king has no need of us, so we will not impose.”

The Observants couldn’t disobey a direct order from the king, but they could hide in their realm, sideways to reality, and make sure that Pariah never got close enough to give them any orders.

They couldn’t act against him, but they refused to help him either.

Clockwork gestured at the viewscreen. “The timeline has changed.”

Before he interfered, Pariah’s war on both human and ghost worlds had been cold and calculating. But Phantom’s attack and the loss of his Crown and Ring had enraged him enough that he had thrown away all strategy and lashed out like a rabid beast.

It had caused far more destruction, but also opened more opportunities for his enemies to fight back.

“These changes are inconsequential,” Watcher stated.

They weren’t wrong. The pattern wasn’t complete yet.

It required further interference.

Clockwork tightened his grip on his scepter. Oh, how wished he could make some proper changes…

In the main timeline, the key to defeating Pariah was the Ecto-Skeleton. Created by the combined genius of Maddie and Jack Fenton, that brilliant invention increased the power of anyone who wore it to incredible degree. It would’ve made Danny Phantom powerful enough to stand against the Ghost King and lock him back inside the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep.

And a new, better version of it created years down the line would’ve solved the problem of Pariah Dark permanently.

But in this timeline, Jack and Maddie were gone. They never got the chance to start working on the Ecto-Skeleton, never got the chance to even conceive the idea. And without them, no one else could create it. Not Vlad Masters, not Nicolai Technus, not the so-called Guys in White… No one.

And, unfortunately, Clockwork couldn’t simply pluck the schematics from another timeline.

As long as his meddling was constrained to a single timeline, he could stay under the radar. But crossing the timestreams was simply too disruptive. The Observants wouldn’t have been able to ignore it, no matter how much they wanted to. Watcher would’ve been forced to stop him and make him change the timeline to the way it had been before, simply because that was the law and they couldn’t prevent themself from following it.

Watcher tapped on the glass casing again. “You are too tense. You have stopped shifting.”

…So he did.

Clockwork quickly switched through different ages, shaking the tension out of his body. His form was an unstable, constantly changing superposition of different ages, and it was uncomfortable to stay locked in just one for too long.

“The dimensional rifts will keep growing,” Clockwork warned. “If they are not stopped soon, this entire world will be destroyed.”

“They are not past the point of no return,” Watcher replied. “Not yet. There is still time. The world might survive, if the king wishes so.”

After all, it was Pariah who had opened the rifts, and he was the only one who could close them.

They both knew that he would never do that, but it didn’t matter. The laws still prevented them from stepping in.

Clockwork hated that leash, but there was nothing he could do about it. Even if he severed his bond with the Observants, it wouldn’t have changed anything. He would’ve still been subject to their rules, he would’ve merely lost the power to affect anything.

“The universe is inherently chaotic,” Watcher whispered. The ever-shifting chorus of their voices was low and soothing. “Even we cannot foresee everything. The timeline might change again.”

An implicit permission for Clockwork to meddle as much as he needed.

Clockwork leaned against Watcher. He was almost done here anyway. The game had already been set, the board just needed one last pawn added onto it.

Time out.

Chapter Text

Valerie stood still and patiently waited for her battle armor to be assembled around her. It was based on the design of the Fenton Peeler, but due to the sheer amount of weaponry and defenses integrated into it, it couldn’t neatly fold and unfold on its own. Valerie couldn’t even put it on by herself: it required an entire team to put together.

The armor was more of a walking tank, especially compared to Valerie’s usual lightweight flight suit that had been designed primarily for speed. It also required a hell of a lot of energy to function, which meant she could only use it at full power for short periods of time.

But despite the drawbacks, this armor had saved her life more than once in the most dangerous battles. And while Valerie had no qualms against fighting an army with only her own speed and agility to protect her, this time she knew she was going to need it.

Once the armor was locked around her, Valerie ran a quick systems check. She trusted her support team of GIW agents and scientists, but it was an ingrained habit to double-check any equipment before battle. Especially a battle as important as the one awaiting her. If she succeeded—

“Alright, the tech team is ready to receive you,” her father said.

Valerie walked towards him, her each step heavy enough to shake the floor. “The web and the lance—”

“All assembled and ready.”

“Any attacks? Any sign that they have been noticed?”

“No, nothing. You are in the clear.”

Valerie slowly exhaled, trying to calm her nerves. “Then it’s showtime.”

She stepped onto her jet sled that had been modified with additional boosters to be able to carry her weight and activated the engines.

“Good luck, honey,” her father whispered. “And whatever happens… please, come back.”

Valerie smiled at him. “I will, dad.”

But in her heart, she knew it was a lie. This mission was too important to fail and she would gladly give her life to see it through.

Passing through the ghost shield was always unnerving, though it wasn’t the shield itself that Valerie found disturbing, it was the sharp divide between the bright futuristic Amity Park and the dead ruins surrounding it.

An oasis of life in the middle of an apocalyptic wasteland.

Valerie flew low to the ground, weaving through the ruined streets. She kept an eye on the HUD which displayed the data from the scanner built into her armor. It could detect several ecto-signatures that were typical to Pariah’s army at the very edge of its effective range, but the distance was large enough that Valerie should be able to stay under the radar.

She remained quiet and careful, and even though it took her a bit of time to get to her destination, at least she had managed not to attract any attention. Valerie landed in the location her map had led her to — another city that had been reduced to a crumbling husk of itself — and signaled the tech team.

Agent N, the leader of the tech team, crept out of the nearby building. “Huntress Gray, we are ready,” she quietly announced, not wasting any time on small talk.

Valerie nodded. “Where are the anchors?”

N stepped closer to her and pointed at the middle of a nearby crossroad. “The center of the web is there. The anchors are equidistant from it.” Then she pointed at the building she had been hiding in. “The closest is here.”

Valerie could vaguely see the device that had been set up there through the broken windows. The other seven anchors would be placed in a similar way.

“And the lance?”

N pointed down the street at the building that stood right where the road split in two, giving the lance a clear path towards the center of the web. “Everything is fully automated and designed to lock onto the target’s ecto-signature the moment it gets in range.”

“Then your team should leave. I can take it from here.”

“With all due respect, Huntress Gray, don’t tell me how to do my job,” N replied seriously. “This entire team has been assembled from volunteers who are fully aware of the risks. We cannot lose this chance, so we must remain here until the end to repair and recalibrate the equipment in case anything malfunctions. Your job is to lure the target in, so stick to that and forget about us. We are all ready and willing to sacrifice our lives if that’s what it takes to win, so don’t hesitate on our account.”

Valerie hated the idea of leaving her allies to die, but she had been fighting on the frontlines long enough to know that sometimes there were no good choices. Sometimes, sacrifices had to be made.

“Understood, Agent N. See you on the other side.”

“Good luck, Huntress Gray.”

The place they had chosen to set up their trap in hadn’t been picked at random. It was close enough to Amity to transport the equipment without being intercepted. It was located in a long-ruined city that had nothing inside it that could possibly interest Pariah’s troops, thus allowing the tech team to work in relative safety. And, most importantly, there was a dimensional rift nearby that led to a place Valerie’s first target frequented.

Valerie crouched down, pressing as close to her sled as her armor allowed. She moved slowly, vary of her surroundings.

Unlike portals, which had strictly defined boundaries between Earth and the Ghost Zone, the rifts spilled out and blurred the borders between them. The laws of physics clashed and malfunctioned around those things, gravity first and foremost.

Passing through the rifts was dangerous, but Valerie had no idea how to get to her destination from the Fenton portal — and even if she did, she would never endanger her home like this — so she had to forge on.

The gravitational anomalies surrounded her on all sides. There were cars floating in the air. There were roads twisted into spirals. There were buildings imploded and exploded and inverted and tilted in every direction at once.

As Valerie got closer to the ragged tear in reality, she could see faintly glowing green mist spilling from it. The Ghost Zone was infecting her world, spreading like poison. And it would continue to do so until Pariah Dark was dealt with.

She grinned darkly. Well, this was exactly why she came here.

Once upon a time, Far Frozen, the realm of ice yetis, and Burning Sands, the land of fire nagas, had been bitter rivals who couldn’t stand each other. Perhaps, that was why Pariah had chosen to open a rift between them, crushing the two realms together: an attempt to make his enemies fight each other.

It had backfired, though the Fright Knight wouldn’t dare to say it out loud. The fire and ice elementals — each a community of warriors in their own right — had united and fought as one. And despite the destruction the rift had caused to their lands, they were still strong enough to repel the skeletal armies again and again.

The Fright Knight had been given the thankless task of conquering their combined realm. It was a stalemate — had been for a while — but he knew that eventually, even the elementals would fall.

Pariah’s armies were endless. It didn’t matter if hundreds or thousands of his warriors were destroyed — he would simply summon more. And the elementals couldn’t replenish their numbers so easily. Sooner or later, they would be overrun.

The Fright Knight tugged at the amulet hanging around his neck. It was a ‘gift’ from Pariah: an artifact that forced the skeletons to obey him like they did their true master. It also allowed Pariah to speak to him — and to spy on him — whenever he wanted.

It was a leash, nothing more.

And yet, the Fright Knight still preferred it to the alternative. Being Pariah’s servant was terrible, but it was better than being his enemy. At the very least, the role he had played in releasing Pariah from the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep — he had neglected to mention that the sarcophagus had been already on the verge of breaking apart when he destroyed it — had given him slightly more leeway.

The rest of the world, both worlds, couldn’t say the same.

He wondered morosely whether there would be anyone left when this was all over. For as long as any shred of resistance remained, this war would continue and the dimensional rifts would keep spreading until—

Nightmare, his trusted steed, reared up and threw the Fright Knight off her back. Then a metal claw clamped around her torso and electrocuted her.

Valerie swore under her breath. The damn monster horse had noticed her just in time to get its rider away. She saw the Fright Knight reach for the amulet around his neck—

She kicked her sled into high gear and rushed straight at him. Even with her heavy armor, Valerie was still faster than the Fright Knight. He wouldn’t be able to escape, especially without his horse!

The skeletal troops flew up to intercept her, no doubt called by that amulet. Valerie sent several missiles at them and plowed right through.

There were more skeletons approaching from behind. A volley of arrows hit her in the back, but her armor could take it. She had to catch her prey!

And luckily for her, the Fright Knight wasn’t trying to escape. Instead, he was trying to remove the clamp from his horse — a futile effort, since it was designed to hold whichever ghost it captured and not to unlock without specific tools. If the horse wasn’t strong enough to break out on its own, he wouldn’t be able to free it.

Valerie leapt off her sled — it automatically attacked the approaching skeletons with its built-in weapons — and tackled the Fright Knight. He tried to phase out of her grip, but her armor was intangibility-proof and Valerie simply electrocuted him.

She kept the charge going through one hand, not giving him even a second of reprieve, even when she called her sled back to her. She extended a thin but sturdy rope from the clamp that kept the horse incapacitated, attached it to her sled, and raced back towards the rift, hauling her captives along.

“This is Gray. Secondary target acquired.”

The skeletal army pursued her into the human world, forcing Valerie to shoot back. She didn’t even try to conserve the energy: she couldn’t lead those skeletons towards the web or they might damage the anchors or tip Pariah off.

She kept shooting until all the skeletons were gone. She knew they would revive eventually, but that would take time. For now, she was in the clear, even though the energy level of her armor had dropped down to fifty-two per cent.

It would have to be enough.

Valerie raced towards the center of the web and dropped her captives down. She kept one hand around the Fright Knight’s neck, though she stopped the flow of electricity. She needed the bastard coherent.

“I know you can contact you master,” Valerie growled. “Do it now or suffer.”

She would’ve done it herself if she had only known how. She knew it had to something to do with that amulet, but she had no idea how to activate it.

“What… for…?” the Fright Knight asked, his voice strained.

Valerie hit him with more electricity. “Did I say you can ask questions? Contact him!”

“Let Nightmare go.”

Nightmare…? Oh, his horse. He had tried to free it, so it had to be valuable to him.

Valerie took out a grenade and tossed it up and down in her hand. “You think you’re in any position to negotiate? Do what I say or I’ll feed this to your horse. I wonder, how many chunks will it explode into?”

The horse made a pitiful noise and the Fright Knight flinched.

“I’m giving you until the count of three. Two. One—”

“I’ll do it!”

“Don’t try to escape or to summon more skeletons or you’ll never see that horse again,” Valerie warned.

He clasped the amulet and Valerie saw it start to glow a dull red color.

“Fright Knight,” a low, dark voice she recognized as Pariah said. “Have you finished the task you have been given?”

“This is the Red Huntress speaking,” Valerie interjected, electrocuting the Fright Knight again before he had a chance to reply. “Your flunky is a little too busy being captured. If you want to get him back—”

Pariah laughed in response. “If he cannot free himself from a mere human, I have no need for such a weakling.”

“And here I thought you’d want your number one ass-kisser back,” Valerie sneered. “Oh, sorry, I meant your only ass-kisser. What the hell kind of a king even are you when you only have one subject?”

The amulet flared up, scorching her armor and making the Fright Knight cry out in pain. “Still thy tongue, worm.”

“Truth hurts, huh? I bet you’re not a real king at all. You don’t even have a crown!”

Pariah bellowed in rage and the amulet exploded.

“…What have you done?” the Fright Knight whispered in horror. “You have doomed us both.”

Right above them, the air itself was torn open.

Valerie quickly rose into the air and the Fright Knight took that chance to make his escape. Valerie didn’t care, she just needed to put some distance between herself and the growing rift—

No, not a rift. A portal.

The rifts were weapons. Portals were doorways.

And doorways were meant to be passed through.

“Priority target acquired.”

Pariah Dark stepped through the portal. His expression was a grimace of rage and he was so huge, Valerie barely reached above his knee even with her armor.

She refused to be intimidated and simply shot him in the face with a blast that ate through five percent of her reserves. This much energy was enough to vaporize an entire building, but right before the impact, Pariah's open helmet extended to cover his face, deflecting it away without a single scratch.

Whatever the hell his armor had been made of, it made him downright invulnerable.

But not for long.

Pariah took another step, right into the middle of the web—

The anchors activated and eight beams of light hit him simultaneously. Each beam was projected by a modified and greatly enhanced form of a Fenton thermos. Pariah was far too powerful to capture, but so many of them pulling him in every direction at once was enough to immobilize him.

Pariah snarled in rage and struggled inside the trap. His hands lit up with red energy—

Valerie shot him again — another five percent gone — but the blast was deflected just as easily.

Behind her back, she heard a distant whine of the lance charging up. A beam of energy hit Pariah in the middle of his chest, right where his core should be located.

His armor didn’t reflect it and Valerie grinned, wild and desperate. The scientists had calculated that if they matched the frequency and ramped up the energy high enough, they would be able to cut through his defenses.

And they had been right. The armor was darkening, starting to smoke and warp—

A huge skeletal dragon dove out of the portal. It shoved itself into the middle of the web, diverting the energy from Pariah. It tried to push him out of the trap, and even though the web was still holding, it managed to shift his body just enough so that the lance was no longer targeting his core.

Pariah raised one hand, straining against the weakened web, and pointed it at the lance. Ecto-energy, red and burning, gathered in his palm.

Valerie didn’t think, she just moved interposing herself between Pariah and the lance. All energy to shields—

“Wake up, Gray!”

Agent N sounded panicked. That was strange. N didn’t do panic.

Something stabbed her in the neck and Valerie sat up with a gasp. She could feel her blood starting to burn from the cocktail of stimulants N had just injected her with.

She was surrounded by rubble and her armor was in pieces around her — a safety mechanism, it was designed to fall apart when damaged enough. Her sled was lying next to her, thankfully intact.

Valerie looked up and froze in horror.

Pariah was still trapped in the web. There was a ragged hole burnt in his side, cutting straight through his armor, and ectoplasm was running freely from it. He was injured, no longer invulnerable—

But his core was still intact, the lance was no longer active, and there were only five anchors left.

Just before her eyes Pariah burned down an entire building, destroying another anchor and killing everyone inside. The web was seconds away from falling apart and Valerie had no weapons left that could take advantage of his weakness.

But if she retreated now, Pariah would hide in his castle and she would never be able to lure him out again—

N dragged her to her feet. “The lance is gone, you need to get out!”

Valerie gritted her teeth and stepped onto her sled. They had created a weapon that could injure Pariah once, they could do it again.

Where there was life, there was hope. Survival was already a win.

She grabbed the agent and rose into the air. And beneath them, the last anchors disappeared in the inferno of red flames.

Chapter Text

Frostbite, chieftain of ice yetis, felt far too old for his age. The situation had been grim already when the fallen hero Phantom went mad, hunting down and devouring ghosts, but even his atrocities paled in comparison to the nightmare that awaited the world.

Pariah Dark had returned and there was nothing that Frostbite and his people could do to stop him. Even allying with the fire nagas, their eternal rivals, couldn’t turn the tide.

Frostbite had never expected the ice and fire elementals to ever coexist together, but war made for strange bedfellows. Far Frozen, once a pristine land of ice and snow, was now mashed haphazardly with the sand dunes and flame rivers of Burning Sands.

They had tried to make the best of the situation nonetheless. Frostbite had officially allied with Ignis, queen of the nagas, and their people had quickly adjusted to the new reality.

It helped that despite their rivalry, the yetis and the nagas had never been enemies. They disliked each other and always tried to stir trouble, but they understood when to put aside their differences in the face of a greater threat. And now the children of ice and fire shared their homes together and fought side by side against the armies of the mad king.

If only that was enough to win this war…

The people of Frozen Sands, as they started to call their combined realm, had repelled the skeletal hordes again and again, but their numbers kept dwindling. And now it looked like Pariah had changed tactics. His army had withdrawn, and the spread of the dimensional rifts had accelerated instead. If this continued, sooner or later those rifts would swallow the entirety of Frozen Sands.

If they wished to survive, they had to resort to extreme measures.

Frostbite walked through the ice caves, half-melted from the fire river that had poured inside during the catastrophic merge. There, in the deepest depths of Frozen Sands, was the weapons research facility where the greatest minds of their realm were developing technology that had never been seen before.

He could smell by the ecto-signature that Ignis was already there. The queen of the nagas was both a warrior and a scientist, but with her recent injury that she hadn’t yet adjusted to, she mostly stuck to the labs.

She was mostly hidden behind the machinery she was working on, but Frostbite could see her distinctive tail. Nagas came in many different colors, but only Ignis had scales of crimson so deep, it looked almost black. And the flames trailing down her spine were the rarest gold, the exact same shade as the armor she wore.

Many ghosts and spirits had tails instead of legs, but those were usually wispy and ethereal. Nagas had tails that were long and solid and strong: the tough scales and the fire that stretched to the tip made their tails just as dangerous as one of their scimitars.

“Frostbite, welcome,” Ignis hissed without looking up.

The nagas could pick apart ecto-signatures just as easily as yetis, so Frostbite wasn’t surprised that she knew it was him approaching.

“You’re just in time: I’m almost finished.”

“Working through the night again, Ignis?” Frostbite asked with a frown. “Your wounds are still fresh.”

Ignis straightened up and crossed her upper arms. “Someone has to. And I’m adjusting.”

In her lower and middle left hands she held the tools she had been working with. The lower and middle arms on her right side were gone.

Frostbite himself had lost his left arm, and even though it had happened long before Pariah had awakened, he still remembered how debilitating it had been. Even the ice prosthesis he had created with his own powers couldn’t fully make up for the loss.

Ignis couldn’t do the same. She was a fire elemental, and flames couldn’t be applied in the same way as ice.

The naga shook her head. Strands of flaming golden hair fell out of the messy ponytail she had tied it into. “Regardless… We’re not here to talk about me.”

She gestured with a clawed hand at the object that had been placed in the center of the complex machine: a conglomerate of translucent ice, lit from inside by the blue light of the ghost core contained within.

“We’re here because of this.”

Frostbite felt a stab of guilt. It was cruel to experiment on an unborn ghost, but they were rapidly running out of options.

The machine Ignis had been working on allowed to infuse a core with more energy. Plenty of nagas and yetis had volunteered for the procedure, but while it had indeed boosted their powers, there was only so much an already formed spirit could absorb.

But the core that hadn’t yet manifested wouldn’t have such limits. At this stage, it was made to absorb energy.

“I have adjusted the parameters of the infusion machine. It is ready for the procedure,” Ignis said. She frowned, worrying her lower lip with her fangs. “But I am still uncertain. This core… we have no idea who it belongs to.”

The core had simply appeared one day, formed from the ambient ecto-energy and post-human consciousness, as was the way of the afterlife. Since it had been drawn to Far Frozen, even before the realm had been forcefully combined with Burning Sands, Frostbite was certain it was an ice core.

That was the only thing he was certain of. Until the ghost manifested, there was no way to discover who they were.

He had no idea whether this ghost would agree to help them. He couldn’t even be sure that they wouldn’t immediately turn on them.

“We don’t have a choice,” Frostbite replied.

No elementals had been born recently and this was the only core they had. And no matter how risky, this was the only plan they had that might be able to save their realm.

“Pariah Dark is a threat to both worlds. He is an enemy to everyone. If nothing else… Pure self-preservation will demand that this ghost works together with us.”

Ignis flicked out her forked tongue. It was how fire elementals detected ecto-signatures and minute differences in energy levels, though Frostbite knew it to be a nervous gesture as well.

“I am still wary, but you are correct. The time for caution has long passed.” She tapped a complicated sequence on the keyboard and the machine started up with a low hum that slowly grew louder. “Initializing…”

Ignis didn’t take her eyes off the screens and the various readings they displayed, but she used her long prehensile tail to grab the weapon harness she had previously taken off. She removed two scimitars on the right side that she was no longer able to wield and quickly attached the rest to her back.

She flipped the two spare weapons around and silently offered them to Frostbite hilt-first.

He bowed slightly and took the scimitars. “It’s an honor, Ignis.”

It was a gesture of greatest respect to be trusted with another warrior’s weapons.

The machine kept working, and Frostbite could see the other scientists drawing closer in curiosity. They all knew what it was meant for.

“Threshold passed,” Ignis announced.

That was the highest energy level their previous test subjects could reach. Just like the scientists had theorized, the core kept absorbing energy with no signs of stopping.

“Increasing output…”

The core was glowing brighter and brighter, taking in every drop of ecto-energy it was given.

A frantic beeping noise came from the machine.

“What’s wrong?” Frostbite asked worriedly. They weren’t hurting the core, were they?

Ignis checked the readings and hurriedly powered down the machine. “Too much energy! Manifestation point reached!”

The ghost was ready to be born.

Frostbite watched with anticipation as the core pulsed brighter still, the ice around it cracking, until all he could see was the brilliant blue glow.

Eventually, the glow began to fade, revealing the figure within. The ghost was tiny and frail-looking compared to the towering elementals surrounding them. They were very clearly a former human, and yet, they also undeniably belonged to Frozen Sands.

They had only two arms, but they had a long tail covered in blue scales instead of legs. Translucent ice-blue spikes ran down their spine in a strange mimicry of a naga’s flames and formed a long jagged blade at the tip of their tail. Their hair was a mess of black icicles and they had icy blue horns like a yeti, although instead of curving up, the horns went over their head, pointing backwards at an angle. More icy spikes ran down the sides of their forearms and formed massive claws over their fingertips, just as translucent as their horns. Even their clothing — a blue sleeveless tunic cinched at the waist with a golden belt — resembled what Frostbite himself was wearing.

The ghost slowly scratched the surface of the infusion machine with their talons. They looked completely out-of-it, though this was to be expected: being born again was a shock and there was a high chance that they remembered nothing of their old life.

Then the ghost’s long pointed ears twitched and they looked up, finally noticing their audience. Their glowing blue eyes rapidly scanned their surroundings. They opened their mouth, revealing rows of glimmering fangs, but the only sound they made was a strained hiss.

“Easy there, little one. You are among friends. There is nothing to be afraid of,” Frostbite said, trying to keep his voice soft.

“Ffff… friends…?” the ghost whispered. “Where…?”

“You are in the Ghost Zone, in the realm of Frozen Sands,” Ignis hissed. She gestured at Frostbite. “This is Chief Frostbite and I am Queen Ignis. We are the rulers of this land and we welcome you in our home.”

“Ghost… Zone…?” the ghost repeated. They silently stared at their hands, at the pale faintly glowing skin and the long ice talons. “Ghost…? I’m… a ghost…?”

“I’m sorry, little one, but you are,” Frostbite said gently. While existence as a ghost had its own perks, losing the life they had before had to hurt.

The ghost made a sound halfway between a laugh and a sob. “I’m a ghost? Why can’t I just die already?!”

“Please, I know it’s a shock—” Ignis started to say.

“Why am I still here?!” the ghost screamed. Their voice rose in pitch, sharp like a knife over glass. “Why did you bring me back?!”

Frostbite could feel the sudden build-up of energy. This ghost was powerful and ecto-energy reacted to emotions. He had to deescalate this somehow. “We didn’t, we have merely found you.”

The ghost didn’t seem to hear him. “Why, why, why, why?!”

Their voice kept warping with every word, shifting into painful metallic tones that scraped like claws over Frostbite’s sensitive ears.

“Why, why, why?!”

Ignis tasted the air with her forked tongue and reeled back with a startled hiss, her red eyes widening in shock. “Everyone out!”

Frostbite trusted her enough not to waste time asking questions. He encased the ghost in ice and flew out of the lab as quickly as he could. Behind him, the ghost’s screams shifted further into an incoherent screeching noise that rose higher and higher and higher—

Phantom never stayed in one place for too long. He constantly jumped between the few remaining human cities and ghost realms, searching for any information that might help him.

Aside from Amity Park, he had gravitated towards Frozen Sands the most, although even with his ecto-signature suppressed, Phantom still couldn’t hide completely from the sophisticated ghost senses of the elementals inhabiting it, so he crept at the edges as intangible mist. Unlike the majority of the Ghost Zone that always seemed stuck in the past, the nagas and the yetis had some elaborate technology. There had been rumors of a new weapon they were developing that might be able to finally turn the tide of this war.

A piercing, nails-on-a-chalkboard sound rent the air. It was so loud it hurt, forcing him back through sheer volume. Far in the distance, Phantom could see the ice starting to crumble—

No, not crumble. Disintegrate.

From the edges of Frozen Sands, he watched the entire realm crack from the inside under the terrible assault of noise.

Was this destruction the result of the weapon that the elementals had been working on going haywire? Phantom needed to get his hands on it.

Once the sound cut off, Phantom flew back into the crumbling realm. He could see some wounded elementals here and there and he quickly divested them of their cores, but the survivors were few and far in-between.

He could feel something ahead: an ecto-signature that felt similar yet distinct from the elementals. So did that mean that the ‘weapon’ was actually a ghost?

Phantom hovered uncertainly in place. What should he do? Ambush the ghost and take their core? Or try to ally with them?

His record with attempted alliances was terrible, but it wasn’t like ghost cores gave him all that much energy compared to what he already had. At the very least, he could throw this ghost into a portal to Pariah’s Keep and let them take a swing at the Ghost King. With the power they displayed, they might be able to damage the shield surrounding the castle that Phantom himself hadn’t been able to get through.

Decision made, Phantom cautiously approached the ground zero, moving closer to the ecto-signature. He wasn’t supposed to feel any emotions, and yet, he still froze in shock once the ghost became visible.

The ghost looked up at him, blue eyes glowing beneath the black icicles of his hair.

“Hey, Phantom…” he whispered with a pained smile. “Guess what? You killed me… but I’m still here.”

“…Danny?!”

Chapter Text

The Fright Knight wasn’t quite sure why Pariah had allowed him to live. Pure sadism, if he had to guess.

After the Ghost King had freed himself from the Red Huntress’ trap — and the Fright Knight still couldn’t believe that a mere human had managed to capture and wound him — he took out his rage on Nightmare first. His poor steed, his loyal companion who had been at his side for centuries, had been torn apart and devoured right before his eyes, and the Fright Knight hadn’t been able to do anything to stop it.

Then Pariah had sent him back to Frozen Sands, only this time without an army. A last chance to repent for his mistakes, he had claimed. And if the Fright Knight didn’t conquer this realm, alone, then his fate would be the same as his steed’s.

The Fright Knight knew full well that it was impossible — the fire and ice elementals were too powerful — and Pariah had to know it too. This was just a way to torment him before the inevitable end.

But it also meant that the Fright Knight had nothing left to lose.

For the first time in centuries, Pariah was vulnerable. The Fright Knight still wouldn’t be able to face him in a fight, but if he could get someone stronger, like the elementals, to help him—

His hope crashed and burned when he saw Frozen Sands in ruins.

The elementals had dealt with the skeletons before and it didn’t look like the kind of destruction caused by the dimensional rifts. Could it be the humans that had caused it? But why would they bother to attack the spirits who weren’t even their enemies?

The Fright Knight cautiously flew towards the heart of the disaster. Perhaps, whoever had destroyed this realm would be willing to ally with him?

Then among the conglomerates of glowing ice and flaming dunes, he noticed a very familiar figure.

Phantom.

The ghost sharply twisted his head around, no doubt sensing his approach.

The Fright Knight quickly raised his hands. “I am not here to fight. You have proposed an alliance before… Does the offer still stand?”

“Alliance?” a new voice asked.

There was another ghost here, one that the Fright Knight hadn’t even noticed with his focus completely on Phantom. He looked like some strange ice naga. A hybrid, perhaps? Even stranger was the fact that this ghost — or spirit, or elemental, or some bizarre half-breed — had somehow survived the destruction and hadn’t been killed by Phantom.

“Why now?” Phantom asked.

“And why should we trust you?” the ice naga added.

He slithered closer to Phantom and placed a clawed hand on his shoulder. His blue tail that bristled with icy spines curled around Phantom, looking almost protective.

Both Phantom and the naga were small, barely more than children, but the energy emanating from them was overwhelming.

“Because now you might actually have a chance to defeat Pariah.”

The naga lurched forward, rising on his long tail and arching over Phantom. His voice dipped into strange metallic tones. “How?!”

“Calm down,” Phantom said. “Your voice—”

The naga flinched and clasped both hands over his mouth. He coiled back down, hiding behind Phantom’s back.

“It is a recent development,” the Fright Knight continued. “The humans created a new weapon. That human, the one who calls herself the Red Huntress—”

The naga reared up. “Valerie?! Is she okay?!”

The Fright Knight nodded. “She has survived and retreated back to her realm. The weapon she had used had been destroyed, but she had managed to wound the king and break through his armor.”

“That armor…” Phantom said slowly. “It had deflected all my attacks in our battle. If there’s a hole in it—”

“—Then you can fight him,” the naga finished. “We can fight him.”

“Or we can wait until the humans rebuild their weapon,” Phantom countered.

The Fright Knight shook his head. “I do not understand human technology, but the Red Huntress needed to lure Pariah into a specific location to use that weapon. He will not step into another trap so easily. And even if that wasn’t an issue, we are running out of time as it is. The dimensional rifts are accelerating.”

The naga clutched Phantom’s shoulders. “They’ll destroy the world if we don’t stop them!”

Phantom didn’t visibly react to this proclamation. “How much time do we have?”

“How would I know?” the Fright Knight asked. “I am nothing but a servant. The king doesn’t share his plans with me.”

“He’s doing it on purpose?!” the naga screeched, his voice rising into something sharp and painful.

Phantom grabbed him by the throat. “Don’t.”

The naga silently opened and closed his mouth, but didn’t try to break out of Phantom’s grip. When he finally went still, Phantom let him go, and the naga coiled on the ground in a miserable huddle.

The Fright Knight wasn’t sure himself whether Pariah had deliberately hastened the rifts or if it was just a side-effect of his injury — or his rage. “It matters not. This might be the only chance you will ever get to defeat the king. His armor is damaged, he is wounded, vulnerable… But I do not know how long it will remain this way. If he can repair the damage, then everything will go back to the way it has been before.”

“If he’s vulnerable, he’ll stay off the battlefield. And I can’t get inside the Keep, I’ve already tried,” Phantom pointed out.

“I can get you in!” the Fright Knight promised. “I am keyed into the defenses — and I am allowed to bring prisoners with me.”

“How do we know it’s not a trap?” Phantom asked.

“…You don’t,” the Fright Knight admitted. “There is no proof I can give you.”

The ice naga uncoiled from his tense huddle and leaned against Phantom’s side. “We have to risk it. You told me that you’ve been hiding and waiting for a chance to strike… Maybe this is it.”

Phantom silently stared at him, then slowly nodded. “Very well.” Then he turned back to the Fright Knight. “If you betray us, I will rip out your core.”

The Fright Knight laughed bitterly. “And if you fail, Pariah will. But rest assured, I have no intentions of betraying those who might still have a chance to slay him before the entire world falls into darkness.”

The ice naga bared dagger-like fangs. “Then we’re in.”

Danny couldn’t stop shaking. It wasn’t because of his uncomfortable position slung over the Fright Knight’s shoulder, but the emotions that boiled inside him.

He remembered clearly what it had been like to awaken fully human, lacking a half of himself. It felt like it had happened just yesterday — and, in some way, it had. The passage of time hadn’t registered in that transitional state between life and unlife.

He had been incomplete — he still was — missing half of his soul, his very self… And yet, every single emotion had stayed with him, crammed into the part that remained. It had hurt so much, death had been a relief.

This was worse. He felt so much, he could barely keep himself under control. And if he lost that control—

Danny barely stifled a sob that threatened to turn into another terrible screech. He had destroyed an entire realm, murdered who knew how many people… And it hadn’t even been on purpose. He just hadn’t been able to stop screaming.

At least his other half was deliberate in his violence. Everything he had done — and Danny might not know the specifics, but he remembered the plans they had made in the privacy of their own mind when they had still been one — it was all in service of a greater goal.

Danny had murdered everyone around him just because he couldn’t control himself. He was a worse monster than Phantom could ever be.

He ground his sharp teeth together, caging in the scream that tried to tear itself out of his throat. He just wanted it all to stop.

He had asked Phantom to kill him again, to rip out his core like he had ripped out his heart all those years ago—

And Phantom had refused because Danny was more useful to him as an ally than an energy source. At least until the confrontation with Pariah was over with.

If they failed, the world would end and nothing would matter anymore.

If they succeeded, their part of the deal would be fulfilled and nothing would matter anymore either.

Maybe then Danny would finally be able to rest.

Phantom flew side-by-side with the Fright Knight, easily keeping pace. He stayed invisible and kept his ecto-signature suppressed: his role was to remain hidden and ambush Pariah while Danny distracted him. Even if the Fright Knight told them the truth and Pariah really was injured, Phantom doubted the Ghost King would be easy to defeat, so he had no intention of playing fair.

The closer they got to Pariah’s Keep, the more their surroundings warped. Parts of the Ghost Zone and the human world were haphazardly smashed together, crumbling into pieces. The very fabric of reality was tearing at the seams.

Phantom could see Danny tremble at the sight. He squeezed his other half’s shoulder. “Stay still just a little longer. Then you can scream.”

That screech of his had destroyed Frozen Sands in seconds. Even the Ghost King shouldn’t be able to weather it unscathed.

The elementals had turned Danny into a weapon, intending to use him against Pariah. It was time to see how successful they had been.

Just like the Fright Knight had promised, they had passed through the glowing shield around Pariah’s Keep without any issue.

Danny remained limp, pretending to be unconscious, but he could feel it when their surroundings changed from long narrow corridors to a large open hall. He could feel Pariah’s powerful presence lighting up his senses like a glowing beacon of malice.

“My liege, I bring good news!” the Fright Knight announced. “Frozen Sands is no more! They had lost control of a new weapon they had created and thus destroyed themselves.” He grabbed Danny by the spikes on his back and hauled him up. “And this is the last survivor.”

Danny opened his eyes with a groan, pretending he was only just waking up.

“A deformed naga? Why have you brought me this defective thing?” Pariah asked.

The king was slouched on his throne with one arm lying awkwardly across his chest. His voice was dark and low, but Danny could hear the strain in it.

The Fright Knight tossed Danny on the floor and knelt in submission. “My liege, this half-breed is the son of Frostbite and Ignis. I thought that destroying the child of those who had foolishly refused to accept your might would bring you satisfaction.”

It was the most plausible lie they had managed to come up with on a short notice, hoping it would interest Pariah enough to get close.

Pariah’s expression changed into a sadistic grin. “You assumed correctly, my servant. I accept your gift.”

The Ghost King rose from his throne. His heavy steps made the floor tremble, making his approach all the more intimidating.

But Danny could see the way Pariah was still holding one arm over his chest. He could see the blackened edges of the hole burnt right through his armor and the ectoplasm dripping sluggishly from the wound beneath.

The Fright Knight had told them the truth. This was their chance!

Danny raised himself on his tail and waited for the monster to approach. And when Pariah was right in front of him, Danny opened his mouth and poured every drop of his pain and hatred into a terrible, destructive screech.

Danny’s attack had completely disintegrated the throne behind Pariah and even the ancient walls of the castle were starting to crack, but Pariah himself was still standing. His armor was slowly crumbling and his wound was growing wider, and yet, he was still weathering the onslaught that could destroy an entire realm as if it was nothing more than a strong wind.

Floating behind Danny’s back, safe from the destructive energy he unleashed, Phantom spun an ecto-bomb between his hands. He didn’t know how long his other half could keep this up, but it couldn’t be forever.

When Danny faltered, he had to be ready to step in, because there was no one else here who could help them. The Fright Knight had already fled the battle: despite his treachery, he still feared Pariah too much to openly stand against him.

It was just the two of them against the King of All Ghosts: Danny and Phantom, alone together as they were always meant to be.

Danny felt like he was drowning in his own emotions that tore out of his throat in a shrieking wave of destruction. He forced himself to focus on Pariah, trying to inflict as much damage as he possibly could, but he couldn’t use this power indefinitely. He stuttered, coughing painfully, and tasted ectoplasm in the back of his throat.

Thankfully, his other half had accounted for it.

Phantom threw a glowing orb at Pariah and immediately yanked Danny down, surrounding them both with a translucent shield.

The orb exploded into a green inferno, its force enough to knock Pariah back.

Once the fire died down, Phantom immediately dismissed the shield. He split himself into five, while Danny prepared to release another screech. 

Faster than his bulk suggested, Pariah lunged forward, swinging his mace at them. Danny plastered himself to the floor, letting the weapon pass above him.

Phantom and his duplicates rose higher instead and lashed out with ecto-ropes. The solidified energy wrapped around Pariah’s limbs, but it wasn’t enough to restrain him. Pariah grabbed one rope in his hand and yanked sharply, pulling one of Phantom’s duplicates within his reach and smashing it to dust with his mace.

Phantom didn’t falter. Another duplicate grabbed the horns on Pariah’s helmet and sent a bolt of electricity through it. Pariah dropped his mace with a snarl of pain, but the weapon rose into the air on its own and flew straight at the duplicate. It dodged, refusing to let go, and kept channeling electricity. The mace turned around and flew back at it, but another duplicate caught it and dug its fangs into the weapon, draining it of energy until it crumbled.

Danny took the opportunity to attack himself. He hit the floor with both hands, sending a row of ice spikes towards Pariah. He grinned, ectoplasm dripping between his fangs, when the longest spike buried itself into Pariah’s already wounded side. He willed the ice to grow and spread and cut his enemy apart from the inside—

A blast of red flames melted his ice. Another one burned Phantom’s duplicate to ashes.

“To me, my minions!” Pariah roared.

A crumbling wall was torn apart by the claws of a gigantic skeletal dragon. And through that hole, the undead army marched inside.

“I’ll deal with them!” Phantom shouted and flew towards the intruders.

He had to clean out the army before they were overrun. The skeletons would always revive, but that required time. He wasn’t planning to give Pariah that time.

Behind his back, he heard Danny start to screech again, distracting Pariah and weakening him further.

Phantom attacked the dragon while his two remaining duplicates blasted away the regular skeletons. The dragon took the hit — and burst into red flames.

He had seen this happen before: Pariah could empower his troops, making them far deadlier than usual. Fortunately, he had some experience fighting dragons.

Phantom sent one of his duplicates to attack the dragon from behind. The moment it turned around to breathe fire at the duplicate, Phantom lashed an ecto-rope around its snout. The dragon reared up on its hind legs to attack him with its claws, only for the duplicate to shove an ecto-bomb inside its ribcage. Phantom backed away from the blast radius—

Another wall crumbled behind him and the jaws of a second dragon bit him in half.

A moment of blinding pain and disorientation — and Phantom took over the duplicate he had left to deal with the regular troops. With his previous body destroyed, the transfer of consciousness into a new one was completely automatic.

Behind him, Danny’s screech faltered — and was replaced with a regular scream.

Danny thrashed in Pariah’s massive hand, unable to phase out of the crushing grip. He lashed out with his tail, burying the long blade on its tip into Pariah's wounded side, but even that wasn't enough to make the Ghost King release him. Pariah yanked the blade out and pulled on his tail, trying to rip him in half.

His throat felt like it was on fire, but Danny forced himself to screech again, finally making Pariah drop him. Twin ecto-blasts collided with the Ghost King, one hitting him in the eye, the other burning into his wounded side, and Danny backed away, letting Phantom and his remaining duplicate to engage the king. He swallowed the bitter ectoplasm pooling in his mouth and prepared to screech once more—

A burning paw slammed down on him and Danny had less than a second to surround himself with a layer of ice before a skeletal dragon breathed out a torrent of flames.

Pariah was weakening, Phantom could see it, but not quickly enough. Even with the debilitating injury inflicted by the human weapon, even after weathering Danny’s screech and Phantom’s numerous attacks, he was still a force to be reckoned with.

Danny was trapped in the claws of a dragon, Phantom’s last duplicate was destroyed, and Phantom himself was blasted away, straight through a wall. Before he could recover, burning red hands grabbed onto him, the grip of empowered skeleton warriors impossible to phase out of.

Pariah approached, slow and inevitable, as Phantom struggled to break free.

“Why do you keep fighting?” the Ghost King asked. “Do you not understand how futile it is?”

Phantom didn’t see a point in exchanging words with the enemy, but something still compelled him to answer. “Because I promised.”

Pariah laughed, dark and unamused. “Naïve child. You promised?”

Phantom bared his fangs, some distant shadow of his lost humanity igniting his core. “Yes, I promised!”

An ethereal howl tore out of his throat, powerful and destructive. The skeletons holding him were blown away from its sheer force. Pariah stumbled back, and behind him the skeletal dragon wavered in its attack.

Then a towering wall of ice encased the dragon, and an almost metallic sound of Danny’s screech joined Phantom’s wail.

Trapped between two equally destructive forces, Pariah collapsed on his hands and knees, too stunned to retaliate.

Phantom lunged forward, seizing the opportunity. He formed an ecto-bomb in his hands and shoved it into Pariah’s side, burying it deeply into his wound. The bomb ripped his torso open in a gruesome explosion of ectoplasm, tearing off his arm at the shoulder.

Pariah survived even that, but Danny didn’t give him a chance to recover. Shackles of ice held him down while more sharpened spikes pierced his body through.

Phantom encased his hands in ecto-energy and shoved them into the giant wound. He dug through Pariah’s body until his hands closed around the Ghost King’s burning core. He pulled with all his strength until something broke and he ripped the core out.

The massive ghost melted into ectoplasm and his entire army dissolved into dust.

Pariah Dark was no more.

The core blazed in his hands with overwhelming power, far stronger than any other ghost or spirit he had ever devoured. It shouldn’t have mattered anymore — his purpose had finally been fulfilled — but Phantom still couldn’t let this kind of power go to waste. He shoved the core into his mouth and forced it down his throat.

The core burned inside him with the terribly familiar feeling of liquid fire spreading beneath his skin. Phantom doubled over and screamed in pain as the stolen energy finally pushed him over the threshold and into a different form. His body stretched and rippled, growing in height and bulging with muscle. His jumpsuit shifted as well, black and white crawling into a different arrangement, and a ragged-edged cape fluttered down his shoulders.

“…We did it?” Danny whispered, coughing up more ectoplasm. “We… won?”

“It appears so,” Phantom replied. His voice sounded different now: darker and lower and older, as if the last decade had finally caught up to him.

The damaged walls of the castle started to shake and broken stones fell from the ceiling. There was a sound somewhere beyond them: an indescribable tearing noise that made his teeth ache.

Danny clasped his hands over his ears. “What is that?”

“Let’s find out.”

Phantom floated up, blasting his way through the roof. Once outside, he finally saw the source of the terrible noise.

The tears in reality were growing wider.

“No, no, this can’t be happening…” Danny whispered in horror. “We won!”

The world froze in a haze of blue.

“You have won the battle but lost the war.”

Danny twitched, his claws scratching the medallion that he was suddenly wearing. Phantom could feel a similar medallion around his own neck.

“Clockwork?”

The spirit of time faded into existence in front of them. “You have defeated Pariah, but you cannot defeat dimensional collapse. This world is about to end and there is nothing you can do to stop it.”

Chapter Text

The dimensional rifts kept growing, swallowing the pieces of two worlds like black holes. The fabric of reality was tearing itself apart. Sooner or later, there would be no Earth and no Ghost Zone left.

“We can’t stop this, can we?” Danny whispered, watching the destruction progress from atop an abandoned skyscraper in some long-ruined city.

“No,” Phantom replied with his usual apathy. He had no need to fake emotions around Danny. “Everything we have done was for nothing. This is the end of the world.”

Danny laughed, high and metallic. “I hate this, I hate this, I hate this!”

He didn’t even try to stop his voice from warping into another destructive screech. There was no one alive in this dead carcass of a city anyway.

“He lied to us! We did everything he had told us to and—”

“—And we failed,” Phantom finished.

Danny choked on his own scream and collapsed, breaking down into sobs. He didn’t even know what he was crying for. For the world Pariah had destroyed? For all the lives he and Phantom had taken? For the friends and family they had lost so long ago?

“It hurts…” he whispered, looking up at his other half. “Phantom… You don’t need me anymore. Please.”

Phantom silently stared down at him. He slowly flexed his fingers, coating them in flaming green.

Danny watched his other half in silence and waited.

Waited to be finally granted the peace he craved.

Danny was right, there was nothing Phantom really needed him for. With the rifts spreading, they were both living on borrowed time anyway. And Phantom had killed him once already, hadn’t he?

So why couldn’t he do it again? Why was he hesitating?

Phantom curled his fingers into a fist, extinguishing the flames. “I don’t… want to.”

He was meant to be completely emotionless, but that wasn’t entirely true, was it? He had been created for a purpose, so he had to care about achieving it.

It had never been a clean break.

And now, with nothing left to strive for, no higher goal to override those faint scraps of emotions, the cracks started to show.

Danny trembled, convulsively digging his talons into his shoulders. “I’m sorry… I keep being selfish. I’ve made you do all the dirty work for ten years, and I still have the nerve to ask for more.”

Translucent blue ice started to form around him, layer after layer of spikes, as his powers reacted to his misery.

Phantom melted the ice with a flick of his hand, threw Danny over his shoulder, and rose into the air.

Danny twisted around to look at him in startled confusion. His emotions were strong but volatile — it was easy to flip them around. “Where are we going?”

“Anywhere else. Staring at the rifts is pointless, all it does is make you miserable.” Phantom paused slightly. “Is there some place you want me to go to?”

“…Yes.”

Vlad knew it was foolish to remain in his sad little bunker when he was welcome to stay in Amity Park for as long as he wanted, but he was tired of Valerie’s pitying looks. He was even more tired of everyone in that city just going along with their day, pretending that the world wasn’t ending.

Even though Pariah Dark was finally gone with his castle destroyed and his army turned to dust, the dimensional rifts he had opened still remained. And reality was still falling apart around them.

Back when the rifts had first appeared, Vlad had tried to find some way to close them, but it had been all in vain. Perhaps, some other scientist — of those few who still survived — would be able to find a solution before the inevitable collapse, but Vlad had lost his capacity to hope years ago.

He had lost so much, he often wondered why he still kept going.

His ghost half being torn out of him and the explosion that destroyed his home hadn’t killed him, but he often wished it did. He could barely walk some days, and the constant pain he was in had him reaching for the bottle more and more.

Vlad sometimes asked himself, why not just end it all? But every time he brought a knife to his wrist, he just couldn’t go through with it.

A coward to the very end.

Bracing himself with a crooked cane, Vlad slowly shuffled towards the makeshift kitchen he had equipped in one corner of his little hidey-hole. He didn’t have a lot of supplies left, but at least the water purifier still worked.

He hadn’t expected to see a visitor in his lonely home. A very familiar one, despite all the years that had passed.

So this was the day he died…

“Hello, Daniel.”

Vlad looked terrible. His clothes were torn and dirty, his hair was a matted mess, and he smelled strongly of alcohol.

He had always seemed so confident and arrogant in the past, no matter what happened… Now Phantom could barely recognize him in this pitiful state.

Vlad leaned heavily on his cane and gestured at the makeshift stove in the corner. “If you’re not going to kill me right now, do you mind if I make some tea?”

Phantom silently stepped to the side.

Vlad limped past him and lit the stove. He put a grimy kettle on top and opened a jar with some dimly glowing leaves inside.

Phantom flicked out his tongue. The leaves smelled a little like mint with a faint undercurrent of ecto-energy.

“Ghost mint,” Vlad explained, throwing the dried leaves into two cups. “It grows everywhere now, thanks to all the dimensional rifts and ecto-contamination. Not the healthiest thing for a human to drink, admittedly, but probably better than some alternatives. Helps with the hangover too.”

Phantom remained silent, letting Vlad ramble. He doubted the man had a lot of people to talk to.

The kettle boiled quickly and Vlad poured the water in. He took one cup and sat at the small table. Then he gestured at the other one. “Help yourself, Daniel.”

“You are far calmer than I expected,” Phantom commented. He took the other cup and sat at the opposite side of the table.

Vlad chuckled without mirth. “I’m not going to delude myself into thinking that I can somehow take you down or escape. We both know that I’m completely at your mercy. I’m just surprised I’m still breathing.”

“I’m not here to kill you,” Phantom said.

He took a sip of his drink. It really did taste like mint.

It felt strange. He hadn’t eaten anything other than ghost cores in years.

Vlad raised an eyebrow in silent question. Then he sighed. “Well, I suppose if you wanted me dead, you would’ve tracked me down earlier. So what brings you here today, Daniel? Or did you just come to kick a defenseless old man while he’s down?”

“I have my reasons.”

“How mysterious,” Vlad drawled. His hands were trembling slightly when he lifted the cup to his lips: whether from sickness or from the cold, Phantom couldn’t tell. “Then what do you need from me?”

“Nothing. I have already taken everything I needed.”

Vlad flinched and almost dropped his cup. He pressed one hand to his chest, digging his fingers over his heart. “I can still feel it, you know… A half of me has been gone for a decade, and it still hurts.”

“Do you want an apology?” Phantom asked.

He could give him one. It wouldn’t be real, but Phantom still remembered how to fake emotions.

“I just want to understand why!” Vlad shouted. “Why did you do this?! I tried to help you and—” His voice cracked and he finished in a broken whisper, “Please, just tell me what I did wrong.”

For ten years, Vlad had been turning the memory of that terrible day in his mind, constantly wondering why it had all gone so wrong. Now, as he listened to the tale Daniel regaled him with, it all started to make a horrifying amount of sense.

Of course, a millennia-old spirit could easily manipulate a traumatized teenager.

Of course, Daniel would grab onto any chance to get his friends and family back regardless of what it would cost him.

Of course, he wouldn’t think twice about sacrificing himself for the sake of the world.

“…And in the end, it has been all for nothing,” Daniel finished. His expression was completely flat and his voice lacked any emotion. “I have failed. This world is dying, and I can’t even regret it.”

“Except, have you really failed?” Vlad wondered darkly. “Or have you done exactly what Clockwork wanted? If he is truly omniscient, shouldn’t he have known this would happen?”

Daniel looked away. “I don’t have an answer for you.”

“No, I suppose you wouldn’t.”

Vlad wanted so much to be mad at him: for trusting that spirit, for throwing his life away, for refusing to ask for help…

“…Do you hate me?” Daniel asked.

And despite all the changes he had undergone and the power rippling around him, all Vlad could see was the same boy who had lost everything.

Vlad sighed heavily. “No, I don’t think I could hate you even if I wanted to.”

“Why? After everything I’ve done—”

“Let him who is without sin cast the first stone. I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of myself and I’ve been trying to keep my hypocrisy at bay.”

“It’s not the same.”

“Perhaps not, but my actions had been my own, while you had the god of time whispering in your ear and leading you down this path.”

Vlad stood up and shuffled towards the shelf where he kept an old photograph that had somehow survived the destruction of his home.

On that photo, his past self was smiling at the camera. Jack and Maddie were standing next to him, grinning bright and carefree. They had all been so young and happy once… It felt like a dream.

“So many years spent on grudges and pointless revenge…” Vlad whispered. “How could I blame you for wanting to turn back time when I keep wishing for the same thing?”

He put the photo back on its shelf and turned away just a little too quickly. His weak knee buckled and Vlad lost his balance.

Strong arms caught him before he could fall. Daniel effortlessly lifted him and put him back in his chair. “You should be more careful.”

Vlad smiled slightly. “Now you sound like Valerie. I have survived for this long already, Daniel. I’m not going to drop dead just because I tripped over my own feet. Although… It’s not like it would matter even if I did. We’re all about to be erased from existence anyway.” He reached out and clasped Daniel’s hand. “I’m just glad I could see you again before the end.”

Danny could feel his other half return, some faint shadow of a connection still linking them together. He coiled his long tail under himself and nervously picked at the blue scales with his talons. “So… How is he?”

“Pitiful,” Phantom replied. “You were right not to come.”

Danny shuddered, hunching his shoulders, and nodded. He wanted to see Vlad again, to apologize for everything he had done… but he knew he couldn’t. He was too dangerous to be allowed to interact with anyone other than Phantom: the fate of Frozen Sands proved it. He had already put Vlad through hell, he didn’t want to hurt him more.

He could feel the ice spines on his back growing longer. His core ached from the endless guilt.

Phantom shoved something under his nose. “Here. Drink it.”

Danny reeled back, startled out of his misery. The spines crumbled, returning to their normal length. “…What?”

He looked closer at the object. It was a cup of tea, still steaming despite the freezing cold he radiated. It smelled like mint.

“Ghost mint,” Phantom said. Danny could see a faint ripple of energy around his hand that kept the tea heated. “From Vlad.”

Danny let out a high-pitched yelp. “You told him about me?!”

It was the only thing he had asked Phantom to keep hidden. It was a coward’s choice, but he wanted Vlad to remember him as the boy he used to be, not the undead weapon he was now.

Phantom shook his head. “No, he gave it to me, but you might appreciate it more.”

Danny hesitantly took the cup and sipped the tea that was rapidly growing cold from his touch. The taste was odd, though not that bad.

“You could visit him yourself, you know,” Phantom said. “He wouldn’t hate you. He didn’t even hate me, and I deserve it a lot more.”

“…It doesn’t matter,” Danny whispered.

Far in the distance, he could see another rift slowly stretching into the sky. Dark clouds swirled around it, blocking the cold light of the sun.

“It’s all going to be over soon…”

They stayed in silence, watching the darkness spread across the broken sky, and waited for the world to end.