Chapter Text
Danny Fenton was 14 when his parents built a strange machine.
“Alrighty, step back everyone,” Dad says, nothing but a smile on his face as he gets ready to start the countdown. He holds two large cables in his hands, one plug leading to the gateway machine and the other plug leading to the power source (which Danny is pretty sure may or may not just be tapped straight into the power grid of Amity Park). “The portal is going live in 10-”
“Danny, sweetie, get behind the safety barrier,” Mom says as she pulls down her welding visor.
“9-”
Danny pulls down his own goggles, moving behind the clear shield to watch his parents and Uncle Vlad. He knows that they’ve been working on this project for years and is excited to share the moment with them.
“8-”
Vlad moves to stand between Mom and Dad, holding a tablet in his hands. His eyes flick between the screen and the empty portal frame. “Calibrations holding steady.” While they supposedly had a falling out as young adults, the three of them have become thick as thieves again over the last ten years.
“7-”
The air in the basement lab is filled with tension and excitement. If their theory proves correct, then not only are they blowing a hole open in the space time continuum, but they’re also creating a whole new area of science.
“6-”
Technically speaking, Drs. Jack and Maddie Fenton and Dr. Vlad Masters have already pioneered the field of Ecto-ology, or Ghost Chemistry, or Plasma Theory (they need to settle on a name). Ever since they got back together when Danny was a kid, they’ve studied and invented together. Whether it be here in the basement or in Vlad’s state of the art lab..
“5-”
Danny has been hearing about ghosts his whole life, for 14 years now it’s what they talk about at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and family trips. On any other day, Danny would share a look with Jazz as they both ached for their parents to have a normal interest, but today? Oh, today… Today, Danny has excitedly scrambled for every and each task they gave him.
“4-”
He brought them tools, helped look over calculations, held metal in place while they secured the screws. He can’t help it, that rush that he gets along with them for every completed invention. They’re on the cutting edge of science and while Danny may hardly ever say it, he is proud of his parents (even though they’ve been labeled the weird family in town and Danny has been bullied about it ever since).
“3-”
Now all of their voices chime in, eyes fixed on the hole in the wall. Danny is sure that none of this is legal, probably very few things in the lab are. On paper, Mom and Dad are supposed to be studying new methods of energy conversion. Which this can technically be considered as. But you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet and even the human body wasn’t understood until scientists carried out illegal research on cadavers.
“2-”
The excitement rises and Danny leans forward, eyes wide and fingers crossed. This is going to be so, so cool if it works. The whole ghost thing aside, a portal into the unknown? Human science hasn’t even figured out light speed travel yet. There’s so much out there to learn when alien heroes like Superman and Martian Manhunter come from other worlds and galaxies to protect a place like Earth.
“1-”
This discovery could blow worm-hole theory or even the multiverse theory out of the water. Or, well, pull the theories into the water? Because then the theories are plausible and reachable? That’s besides the point. The point is all of the good that could come from this. Energy or worm holes, so many possibilities and only one way to find out.
“0!”
Dad pushes the two plugs together and the lights flicker.
Even the foundation seems to tremble and vibrate with anticipation.
A dull whirring starts up, rising into a whine as the engine kicks to life. They can hear the rotators picking up speed and there’s a dull green glow beginning to gather in the tube of the portal tunnel.
“Come on, this is it.” Mom clasps her hands in excitement.
“It’ll work. It’s going to work,” Vlad says, words sounding more like a prayer as his eyes flick between portal and tablet, not wanting to miss a single thing.
“You know it.” Dad puts a hand on Vlad’s shoulder. “This time, it’s working.”
There’s a rattling, the floor and walls trembling, before a dull clang and everything grinds to a complete and hollow stop.
The silence is defining after the swelling cacophony.
They hold their breath for a few moments longer, hoping that the machine will kick back up again, but Vlad is watching his tablet with his lips pursed into a deep frown.
Oh.
Well that’s disappointing.
Danny settles back onto his heels and blows out a breath. Damn. He even put the hazard suit on for this. Well, after the research part of the scientific method, at least it’s time for the second fun part: why did that happen?
“Or not,” Dad’s smile drops. “Or this time it’s not working either.”
“We were so sure that the small prototypes didn’t work because of the insufficient space for rotation,” Mom sighs, “Going bigger was supposed to fix that.”
The three of them stare at their creation, crestfallen.
After a moment, it’s Vlad who speaks up, his voice dry and full of disappointment, even though the corner of his mouth ticks up in a small smile. “Jack, did you put soda in the filters again?”
Mom and Dad stare at Vlad before the three of them are bursting out into laughter. Danny’s not sure why that’s so funny.
“Maybe there should be a little bit of soda,” Dad chuckles heartily as he and Vlad lean into each other, spilling into laughter again.
“Alright, alright, let’s get back to work.” Mom takes her visor off to smile at them.
Danny goes over and tries to peer at the tablet in Vlad’s hands. “What does the diagnostic say?”
“Hang on, little badger, all that I know right now is that the portal shut down.” Vlad ruffles Danny’s hair before tapping a few buttons on the screen. “The program is still scrubbing through the data. We’ll get results in a few minutes.”
“Then it’s back to the drawing board, boys.” Mom moves to the whiteboards on the wall across from the portal, crossing her arms with one hand on her chin as she assesses the calculations. “Aside from soda jokes… The size is enough to account for the polarity and the balance is sufficient to maintain rotation. We collected more than enough ambient ectoplasm to kick start the reaction… What did we miss this time?”
Dad flattens his hands against the blueprints on the table next to the white board. “We double and triple checked the parts. Every scrap of metal was forged and molded to be able to handle the frequency.”
Danny looks over at the gaping mouth of the portal.
“Okay, the diagnostic is finished.” Vlad flicks his wrist and the 3D hologram lights up, displaying a 3d scan of the machine. “The polarity was stable, the rotation was 78% up to full speed, the frequency was clear. Ah-”
All of their attention turns to the red zone that Vlad zooms in on. “The power was unable to be transmitted?”
“Well that doesn’t make sense, we have more than enough power and the parts to process it.” Dad uses his finger to follow the wires in the schematic.
“Maybe it’s not about the level of power…” Mom mutters. “Jack, where’s the blueprint for zone 5 and parts ADZ7 and XKY9.”
Tablet still in one hand, Vlad leans over the blueprints with his two friends, his other hand resting on the small of Mom’s back. “What are you thinking, Mads?”
With a silent gag, Danny turns away. Vlad has always been so touch centered, especially with Mom, and Danny certainly doesn’t need to see when they’re being all lovey.
Well, they’re nerding it up and it’s gonna mostly go over his head, so the least that Danny could do is clean up the lab. That’ll make his chores for later easier.
Behind him, Mom continues talking. “Remember that we had that long debate about the connections here? What if we reverse them like Jack had said.”
Dad smiles fondly as he spreads more blueprints out in front of them. “Thank you Maddie, I see I’m getting the recognition that I deserve.”
Tuning out their discussion of the parts, Danny focuses on picking up and putting away tools. He’s probably gonna have to sweep the whole lab later, there’s metal shavings and tiny screws on the floor, not to mention all the wire clippings.
He picks up the polishing rags and the buffer, he puts the wrenches away in their drawer, and he collects the screw drivers. As he scans the floor and starts picking up the screws, he finds himself at the entrance of the portal.
Danny checks over his shoulder.
The adults still have their backs to him, lost in their debate about which connection should go where and is it really going to be necessary to take apart and rebuild that sector of the portal.
Danny tucks the screws into his pocket and steps into the portal.
Now that it is assembled, they haven’t let him get close to it yet, though Danny doesn’t see the harm. They were standing inside of it earlier while they were working and he got to help make the parts when all the pieces were being assembled on the tables.
Danny runs one of his gloved hands over the smooth interior.
It truly is fascinating.
His parents designed and built this behemoth of a machine (with Vlad’s help too, of course). The metal panels fit so well together that there is barely even a seam between them. Which makes sense because they wouldn’t want the portal to like, leak out or anything. Is that how portals work?
Danny tries to remember what his parents have said about their theory on the plane of existence where ghosts are from. They sometimes have him help collect the ectoplasm samples from the air filters they set up in the graveyard, so Danny is at least familiar with the green goop. Especially given that they store the gooey ectoplasm in the fridge and that causes the meat to become reanimated if they don’t eat it fast enough.
Reaching the end of the tunnel, Danny turns to trace his hand over the other side as he starts to meander back out. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Vlad throw his head back in frustration and then do a double take back to Danny.
Danny stops as the tips of his fingers catch on a plate of metal and he looks down.
Oh.
That shouldn’t be that way.
He’s no ecto-chemistry-ologist or whatever, but he knows enough about engineering to tell when a screw has been knocked out of place and something isn’t sitting right.
“Hey, I think I found it,” he calls.
Vlad is already halfway across the lab. “Daniel, get out of there, it’s still plugged-”
“Hang on, I got this,” Danny assures, taking his screwdriver out of his belt.
“Dan-O, listen to-”
“Honey, get out-”
Using the palm of his left hand, Danny presses the metal plating back into place.
Vlad starts to run, right arm out-stretched as he reaches for Danny.
A tingling buzz spreads up Danny’s left arm, from his palm to his shoulder, and his left foot becomes anchored to the floor, as if magnetized there. He can see the electricity crackling over his gloved left hand, all sound cutting out around him as the lights flare brighter and brighter, tinging green.
The portal is rumbling again.
It’s rumbling and whining much louder now.
Danny looks up to lock eyes with Vlad as he launches himself toward the portal, both too late and just in time. As the world dissolves into green, Danny has one last coherent thought.
Oh.
So this is what it feels like to die.
~~~
There’s electricity in his blood. It scalds his bones and melts his brain and all his eyes can see is green and red and red and green.
The green mouth of the portal slashes open and Vlad’s scream is cut short as his head and his arm are severed from his body. They float there in place, gravity ceasing to exist in this space of prolonged death. This space of between.
Red and green and green and red and bright, bright, bright pain.
Danny’s body convulses, limbs flailing with scalding electricity. His lungs spasm and thick green sludge sucks into his mouth, down his throat. It burns. But it doesn’t burn as much as the lightning that’s eating him up from the inside out, squeezing his heart as it rips from contact point to contact point between his hand and his foot. His blood is roiling and turning to electric mist as his soul is pulled from his body only to slam right back.
It’s electricity carving through his chest, lighting his nerves on fire and boiling his blood. It’s ectoplasm bursting in his head, his eyes swimming and swirling in the never ending, all consuming green. So many shades of green and red and red and green.
There’s a boom somewhere in the space around him. The shredding of metal accompanying the shredding of his flesh and bone. Is the earth shaking from his screaming or is that just his throat? He’s screaming and screaming and screaming and can’t even draw in an agonized breath before he’s shrieking more, the sound clawing its way out of his shredding throat and bubbling around ectoplasmic-goo and his own blood.
The bodies fall to the ruined metal floor with a wet slap, red and green radiating out in a shimmering puddle of potential.
Danny Fenton was just 14 when he died for the first time.
~~~
Jazz Fenton was 17 when her parents built a strange machine.
Several blocks away, in the Amity Public Library, Jazz hums along to her lofi as she taps at her computer. For the moment, she’s taking a break from her AP summer homework to skim over college programs and applications. It’s finally her senior year and she can finally set her plans for her future into motion.
For one glorious moment, the whole world is at her fingertips.
It’s nothing but possibilities opening before her.
Stanford, Yale, Princeton, and ivy league schools that are at the top of her list. She’ll apply to them all, of course. In the end, it’ll come down to the financial aid package, but maybe she can ask Uncle Vlad for a loan.
For now, it’s just fun to think about all the opportunities.
Then the flickering lights have her raising her head, pulling off her headphones in time to hear a distant rumble, crack, and boom. As the library lights go dead and the foundation trembles with the force of the backlash, a pit of dread forms in Jazz’s stomach.
That was not a natural earthquake.
She doesn’t even take her belongings with her. Her headphones hit the ground and her books stay open next to her laptop as she scrambles from the library.
There’s no way.
It’s not possible.
It can’t be.
Jazz doesn’t bother with the bus system, electing instead to run the blocks home. The breath tearing at her throat doesn’t matter. There’s nothing but fear and adrenaline pushing her body forward.
She has to know.
And she has to know now.
Please don’t let it be her block.
She passes by the downtown shops, storefronts turning into residential houses. She takes every shortcut she’s learned since she was a kid. Every side street and cutting corners over people’s unfenced lawns. She even sprints through some of the alleys she learned when she dated that one bad-boy two years ago before he stopped talking to her.
Jazz’s feet pound over the concrete.
She can hear emergency response vehicles up ahead.
Please don’t let it be her street.
So stupid, a lab in their own home. They promised they’d never work on anything too dangerous. She should know though, Mom and Dad’s perception of danger is a little out there and stretched. She can’t even remember what her parents had said they were going to work on today. Every rational thought has left Jazz’s head.
The sound of the sirens is getting closer.
Please don’t let it be her house.
Whipping around the street corner, Jazz pushes through the gathered bystanders– her neighbors –and ducks under the barricade. “My house! Let me through! That’s my house!” She barely notices as officers catch her, or even hears their warnings about staying away from the scene.
Her childhood home…
Jazz’s knees hit the pavement.
There’s a hole ripped from basement to brownstone.
Then she sees the bloody, broken body of her baby brother being lifted on a gurney into the back of an ambulance. Uncle Vlad isn’t much better as he’s loaded into a second ambulance and the two emergency vehicles speed away.
It can’t be. It can’t be.
What’s left of the basement is nothing but rubble.
There’s someone kneeling next to Jazz, speaking to her with a comforting tone. She doesn’t hear any of it, her eyes locked on the ruins of her house.
Even the foundation has been ripped into. The lab is utterly obliterated, the cracked and broken walls bowing out into the surrounding earth. All that remains are the fragments of a large machine, glass shards and twisted metal everywhere. Cabinet doors flung wide and living room furniture fallen down into the ruined space from the hole going through to the first floor. She’s not sure how their bedrooms on the second floor have fared, but the ops center on the roof may very well fall over soon. The blast even carved out past the sidewalk and into the backyard, the next door neighbor’s wall isn’t unscathed. How the house is still standing on two and a half walls, Jazz doesn’t know.
Her eyes are locked on one broken slab of wall.
Two bloody outlines.
Two black body bags laying to the side.
Jazz Fenton was just 17 when she became an orphan.