Chapter Text
Most days, Phantom didn't show his face unless he absolutely had to.
Gone were the days when the novelty of his powers kept him out and about for hours at a time. Although his abilities had only grown more plentiful over the two years he'd had them, so had the drawbacks. Time as Phantom only cut into his time as Danny Fenton, time which was mostly consumed by school work and the many other responsibilities and expectations he'd picked up over the years. Sneaking away for fun wasn't something he could often justify doing when it would only burden him further.
As Phantom, he was all too aware of the way some people still looked at him in fear — or, worse, like he should fear them — despite all the work he had put in to protect them. Now, when he was around at all, it was because of a ghost attack. Though with the threat of extra thermos time, those were much less common than they used to be.
So the fact that someone was not only seeking Phantom out, but had managed to catch his attention really was something notable.
It was fairly quiet, seeing that it was so early in the morning that the sun had barely risen. The streets were mostly barren, save for the few early morning commuters and the giant, angular shape of the GAV that had been trailing him for the past ten minutes despite his efforts to shake them.
"Phantom!" Maddie called, and against his better judgement, Phantom flipped over to face her. She was leaning out the side of the vehicle, and though she had a blaster in hand, it was held loosely to her side instead of pointed straight at him the way he would expect. She looked tired, Phantom couldn't help but notice, but he couldn't blame her. He was tired too.
He could still zip away, lose them in the winding streets and imposing buildings instead of risking an encounter, but it would probably be pointless. Jack Fenton was a hard man to lose, and Maddie Fenton was an expert in ghost tracking. Unless they gave up, it was only a matter of time before they managed to corner him, and he would really much rather meet on his own terms, while he still had a method of escape, than because he'd been hunted down to exhaustion.
Phantom dropped down to street level, hovering only a few feet away from them. He kept a cautious gaze on the GAV, but so far it was unarmed. "Can I help you?"
The two hunters shared a hesitant look. It seemed that, despite all their efforts, they didn't have much of a plan for once they'd actually caught his attention.
It was Jack who spoke first. "You know about our son, don't you?" he asked.
Phantom did not laugh in their faces, because he did, in fact, value his afterlife. "Danny Fenton? Son of Amity Park's most notorious ghost hunters? Of course I know him."
"Have you seen him at all recently?" Maddie was the one to ask this time. "He… we haven't seen him since he missed curfew on Friday."
Phantom knew that this was the only reason they would have had to track him down, and so he wasn't exactly surprised by the question. He just wished they hadn't.
"I haven't"
Maddie scrutinized him for a good long moment, and Phantom tried not to giver her a reason to doubt him by looking too guilty. It's not like it's even a lie, he reminded himself. He tried not to think too hard about it.
"I can keep an eye out for him," he added when it didn't seem like she would take him at his word. "I'll let you know if I see him around."
That must have been enough to satisfy her, because she finally broke her gaze away from him. "I suppose that's the best we can hope for from a ghost," she bites.
"It was worth a try, wasn't it?" Jack said. He's oddly subdued.
"It had better hope so."
The GAV swerved back onto the street with little fanfare, and Phantom followed it's erratic path with his eyes until it was finally out of sight. He breathed for the first time all morning; unnecessary, but grounding. He was just glad to be… well perhaps alive wasn't the best word for it, but he hadn't been ripped apart atom by atom yet, so maybe this day wasn't all rotten after all.
Phantom glided lazily through the air, face up and hands behind his head, and watched as the sky bled from dawn pink to pale blue with the slightest tinge of ectoplasmic green. It was quite pretty, if not a little boring to watch. It was another one of those things that wasn't quite novel anymore, even though he wasn't exactly the type to sit around and watch the sunrise. He'd seen the sky painted all sorts of colours before, but he'd never had the time before to watch how each one met the other.
He phased through the wall of Sam's guest bedroom as easy as breathing. The place was pristine aside from the wrinkled sheets where he'd attempted to sleep for a while to no real success. He had stared at the popcorn ceiling for so long he'd memorized the shape of every bump and groove along its surface.
When the clock ticked over to 6:45, he sunk through the floor into Sam's room, where the alarm's shrill pulse thrummed at his ears.
"Wakey wakey," he sung. Sam groaned, burying herself further into her nest of pillows and sheets. "C'mon, Sam, are you really gonna let me be awake before you?"
"Let me rot here," she murmurs, but the pillows shift and she emerges, frizzy hair and all. "No luck then?"
"Well, you know Plasmius, only there when you don't want him to be."
Sam yawned. "No kidding."
It was probably a rule of the universe; the sky was blue, Jack Fenton could not drive to save his life, and Vlad Masters was the worst being to ever grace the realms of living or dead. He was the reason Danny was stuck like this, trapped as Phantom and unable to access his human half. Him and his stupid Plasmius Maximus 2.0 or whatever the hell he was calling it. Danny hadn't exactly caught it's name when he'd been, y'know, trying not to get shot.
(Not that he'd been very successful at that.)
Without anything better to do, Danny tagged along as Sam went about her morning routine and arrived at school. There was still another fifteen minutes to spare before homeroom began. Danny wasn't sure what to do with himself, considering Phantom couldn't exactly show his face there and keep a low profile at the same time.
Danny hovered invisibly at his friends' shoulders, and the people around them whispered, though Danny didn't bother listening in. It wasn't hard to guess what it was they were whispering about with the way their eyes followed the empty space where he would usually stand. Gossip really did travel fast.
"He still hasn't shown up?" Tucker murmured. Danny knew the question was directed at him by the way he steadfastly avoided looking at the seemingly empty space to his right.
"Nothing. At this point I'm willing to risk whatever trap he might have set in his lab just to see if it's there."
"What the hell does he even want?" Sam said. "What's the point? Does he really think that this of all things is gonna be what wins you over to his side?"
Danny sighed. "I don't know. Does it really matter?"
"Of course it matters! He's not just blasting people with mystery gadgets willy nilly."
"Sam, Plasmius is evil," Tucker said as if it were irrefutable fact. "Who knows why he does half the things he does."
Sam turns abruptly, and Danny just barely manages to avoid crashing into her. "Are you not worried at all?"
"I'm just saying. Why does it matter so much to you?"
If anyone hadn't been staring before, they certainly were now. "Guys," Danny began.
"Danny is our friend. He could be in real danger because of this."
"He'll be fine. Danny can handle himself."
"Guys-"
"But we can help him!"
"Plasmius is no match for him. You've seen how powerful Phantom is."
"And so has Plasmius! Do you really think he wouldn't have thought of that when-"
"Guys!" Danny hissed. Finally, they've gone silent. "Listen, I appreciate the confidence, really, but can we not do this here?"
The two of them glanced around, seemingly only now realizing the audience they've gathered. Tucker grimaced, and Sam hitched her bag a little further up her shoulder. "Fine," she said. "But don't think we aren't discussing this later."
"I really think there are more important things to talk about, but fine."
The bell stopped any further remark, and the three parted ways. It was first period right now, but Danny took the opportunity to perch on the roof instead. It wasn't terrible up there. Dirty, maybe, littered with gravel and the occasional football lost forever to its height, but it beat Mr. Lancer's droning.
He was so getting detention again for all the absences he was about to rack up.
God, being Phantom sucked sometimes. At least in his human form, scrawny and weak as he was, he could go about a normal life. He hadn't realized how wonderful that ability to go under the radar truly was until it was locked away.
And all of it came back to Plasmius, that damn fruit loop. The next time Danny saw him was was going to kick his ass even harder than before. Assuming he could even find him, that was. The weekend had come and gone without a single sign, human or ghost. Danny was just about ready to rip his hair out in frustration.
A weight dropped itself around his neck, and Phantom jumped, floating about a foot in the air. He grabbed the object in his hand. It was a medallion.
"Clockwork?"
"Daniel," the master of time replied. Danny twisted in the air until he was face to face with a body that was small and young. He sunk back down to the rooftop.
"Oh, ancients, finally. Are you here to fix me now?"
Clockwork did not smile in agreement, nor did he wave his hands and make all of Danny's problems go away. His fingers barely even twitched, dammit.
"Or not," Danny grumbled.
"I'm afraid meddling goes against my contract."
Danny knew Clockwork lived for every opportunity he got to get one up on the observants, but trying to pry a truthful answer out of him would have been a waste of time.
"Why are you here?" Danny huffed, before abruptly remembering who he was talking to. "Uh, no offence."
Clockwork does grin this time, which Danny takes to mean he's in the clear. The lines of his expression grow deeper as his body rapidly ages, growing spindly and bony. "Really, Daniel. I wouldn't be here if it weren't so important."
"Is this another one of those 'the fate of the realms depends on you' things?"
"Well it's true, Daniel. You of all beings would know just how rare and powerful halfas can be."
"Not rare enough." Danny grimaces.
"But so much more so than they used to be, which is precisely why you have no idea what is going on."
Danny was getting real tired of Clockwork's theatrics. "Then enlighten me, oh great ancient of Christmas past. What's happening to me."
"You are dying."
Danny laughed for the first time all week. Some elaborate prank. "Yeah, good one," he grinned. "I needed that."
"This is no joke, Daniel," Clockwork said, voice grave. Danny's laughter died away.
"Uh, newsflash, I'm already dead."
"Perhaps. But you are also alive. The two are not exclusive. And what is alive can always die."
He wasn't grinning anymore. "What do you mean."
Clockwork raised a lone eyebrow, though the expression lost a lot of its impact as his face smoothed back into one still pudgy with baby fat. "Surely you can figure that out for yourself."
"That's… This is killing me? Why?"
"It is killing your living half, to be precise. Your human half, which requires food, sleep, energy, all things that you can no longer give it like this."
"Oh."
"Which is why I'm here."
"Aw, I knew you cared, Clocky."
"There are many things that will come to pass in the future, many of which are already in motion at this very moment. They are things that, at this very moment, you are not equipped to deal with."
Well wasn't that something to look forward to. "Wait, what does me dying have to do with that? Can't I…."
Surely this wasn't another precursor to him. Surely he could still protect people, still save people, even if he….
"Your ghost half is powerful, Daniel. It grows more so every day. Surely you've noticed how abnormal that is."
Danny hadn't even thought about it.
"That growth isn't something ghosts are usually capable of. It's a human trait. It's what makes halfas as powerful as they are, so much so that Pariah Dark ordered their extinction when he first established his reign. It is also what you will need in order to defeat what is soon to come."
Danny let out a wheezing breath. "Are you serious?"
"Deadly."
"So what do I do? How do I fix this? Why can't you?"
"I won't meddle any further. We are already on a good path forward. With any luck, you'll be able to make it past the week."
"Wait-"
"You will do so much good, Daniel. Don't forget it."
The weight of the medallion dissapeared in an instant, and the sounds of Casper High rushed into the vacuum. Danny gasped, feeling as if he'd been holding his breath for a long time.
Danny was suddenly aware of a very different weight, the weight of the ticking clock that hung over him.
Morning turned to noon turned to afternoon. Danny watched the sun crawl across the sky with his knees to his chest. He was aware that he was wasting precious time, but he couldn't bring himself to do anything more than stew in it, the knowledge of his impending end gnawing away at his chest.
Danny felt dead on his feet. There was nothing he wanted more in that moment than to collapse in his bed. He'd hardly touched it all weekend, and he sorely missed it.
He phased through the wall to his bedroom without even bothering to look around. It was still the middle of the day anyway. No one was going to be looking.
The hazmat suit wasn't all that comfortable, but Danny couldn't bring himself to care. He fell face first onto the bed.
It felt like only moments later that he was being shaken awake. There was cold drool crusting on his chin. Gross. He wiped it away.
"What are you doing?" Jazz whispered frantically. "You didn't even close the door."
Danny blinked dumbly at the empty doorway. He hadn't even realized.
"What would mom and dad think? Their son goes missing and then a ghost makes himself at home in his room?"
"I know, Jazz, I know." He stretched out the aches from his impromptu nap. It always felt odd to be so still in ghost form. His ectoplasm seemed to pool under his skin, buzzing as if aching to run free. He seemed to feel it all the time now.
"You need to tell them," said Jazz. "They're going to find out soon. It's better if it comes from you."
"I can't, Jazz. Not right now." Not ever.
Jazz breathed. Some of the tension that had been lining her dripped away. "I know." She reached out to pull him into a hug. Danny sputtered a half-hearted protest. "We'll figure this out first. But you can't keep this up forever."
Danny leaned into her just a little bit. He hoped she was wrong. This wasn't something he wanted to lose.
"Now get out of here before mom and dad come home and see you like this. I promise you this is not the way you want them to find out."
Danny's not sure he wants them to find out at all. He's heard all their talk about dissection. Would it change their minds to find out that under all that ghostly exterior was their son? Or, worse, would it change nothing at all.
The possibility is terrifying enough that Danny is in no rush to find out.
Dusk was in its early stages, the setting sun painting the clouds a pale pink and casting Vlad Master's manor into deep shadow. It wasn't half bad to look at considering the darkness obscured some of the more gaudy parts of the building. Phantom hovered in wait high above it, but Plasmius was nowhere to be seen.
As the sun continued to sink, the sky darkening even further, Danny grew impatient. Waiting was really boring. It was weird. Why would Plasmius go through all that trouble just to dissapear off the face of the earth? Unless he really was looking to kill him. Maybe it was a bit too generous to assume that was too low for that fruit loop bastard to stoop.
Fuck it. Danny wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. If Plasmius refused to show his face and stop him, then Phantom would just swoop in and swipe the gadget right out from under his nose.
He headed straight for the lab. If Vlad was keeping that thing anywhere, it would be there. The place was impossible for most people to access; its only real entrance was the portal to the ghost zone punched into its back wall. Luckily, that wasn't a problem for Phantom, and he phased easily through the many layers of ground until he'd passed through the ceiling and into the place itself.
The lab is much larger than the one at fentonworks, but still smaller than he'd expected from Vlad. Everything is plated with steel and covered in idle screens. The surfaces are immaculate, not strewn with the guts of different inventions his parents were working on. Danny's eye caught the exact thing he was looking for right away.
It's the Plasmius Maximus, or at least a design based on it; Danny had destroyed the original as soon as he'd had the chance. This one, however, was a little bulkier than the original handheld device, and its effect was the opposite. The original had locked away his ghost powers for a few hours, inconvenient for sure, but temporary. This one had cut off his access to his human half entirely.
It was sat out on the table all by itself, completely unguarded and the very picture of conspicuous. It had to be a trap somehow, though Danny couldn't see any obvious sign of one aside from its placement. He approached it slowly.
Phantom reached out a hand, carefully hovering it above the — what was he even meant to call it, the Maximus 2.0? He hovered, but didn't dare touch it. It could have been booby trapped in so many ways. At the very least, he didn't hear the telltale buzz of electricity from it.
His hand closed around it.
Nothing happened. Danny let out an anxious groan, picking it up with ease. There was no trap. "What are you playing at, Plasmius?"
Leaving was just as easy as entering. Phantom zipped up into the sky, Maximus 2.0 in hand. His thumb hovered over the switch. Should he just point it at himself and hope for the best?
On second thought, maybe not while he was way up in the air. Phantom returned to solid ground.
He pointed it at his chest with shaking hands. He took a deep breath. It was always hard to brace himself for the bite of electricity. He hated those attacks. Plasmius, of course, took that as invitation to incorporate them into every assault against him.
Fuck. He wasn't going to be able to do this if he kept thinking about it.
Danny pressed the end of it to his collarbone, choked in another breath, and flipped the switch.
Nothing happened.