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underforeversgrace · 1 year

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all masks must come off

DannyMay2023 Day 6: Eclipse

words: 2517

Complete

AO3

Excerpt: "Eclipses are... hm, kind of like holy days for ghosts." Danny began and Maddie fully relaxed. Ghosts weren't sentient enough to have anything approching religion or faith. "You can't hide under an eclipse. It's night and day both turning their gaze to you and no disguise can bear both the sun and moon's scrutiny."

~~~~~~

It was Vlad who told him what would happen, though still in the interest of self-preservation and not any kind of kindness or goodwill. Surprisingly enough, it had been Sidney who further expanded, who explained why it would happen.

Danny, of course, had known about the upcoming solar eclipse for months, what kind of space Obsessed ghost would he be if he didn’t, after all? The closer it came to time, the more his core vibrated in his chest in excitement.

The closer it came to time, though, the harder it became to hold his form, the more he felt the masks he wore trying to slip.

His idea for the day might be madness, he knew. But… he was tired. Two years of this - of lying, of being shot by them - and he was tired. If they didn’t take it well… well, he knew how to care for himself. It wasn’t like he needed to eat, like all of his human biological processes were more suggestions than requirements. There were plenty of abandoned buildings and he was a ghost, may as well give into cliche if he needed to.

He prayed he didn’t need to. He prayed for their love. Who, or even what, he prayed to, he didn’t know. But he prayed with every fiber of his being that they loved him more than they feared ghosts, even once his mask was stripped from him.

A deep, stuttering breath as he reined in his fear. He knew they would accept him, part of him, he had seen that much courtesy of Freakshow last year. But they hadn’t known it all. They didn’t see the whole truth.

“Mom, dad?” Danny asked, peeking his head around the corner of the lab doorway. Even if he wasn’t half ghost, he would probably do this, to be honest. His parent’s lab safety was absolutely nonexistent - he was proof enough of that. It had half-killed two people.

“Danno!” His father boomed, a wide grin taking up half his face. Danny couldn’t help but smile back, Jack’s exuberance was practically tangible. (And also, outright delicious. Danny loved the taste of happy emotions, the darker ones left bitter tastes in his mouth.)

“What’s up, sweetie?” Mom asked, stepping away from whatever they were tinkering with on the desk and pulling her hood down.

For a moment, Danny just enjoyed this, hoped it wouldn’t be the last time he was able to do this - absorb his parents’ love for him from the air.

“There’s an eclipse soon. Would you like to watch it with me?” Danny asked, gesturing towards the ceiling and the Ops Center above.

Surprise tinged the air as they looked at each other. He didn’t need to guess what they were thinking about. When he was younger, he had pulled them to the Ops Center so many times to just watch the night sky, it hadn’t even needed to have a notable celestial event happening. He had just been young and adored the stars and wanted to share it with his parents.

He hadn’t asked for anything like that, not even for the meteor shower, since he’d died.

“Of course!” Jack said, setting down the half finished device covered in disconnected wires on his desk.

“We’d love to.” Maddie agreed, though Danny saw the tears she blinked away. He knew they were tears of happiness, though.

He didn’t need to be an emotion eater to know that.

“C’mon, then!” He said, waving his hand to follow as he hurried up the stairs, though he pulled his phone out on his way up and shot a quick message to Tucker.

Hack and disable the suits.

He shoved the phone back in his pocket before getting a response, though the vibration he felt less than a minute later and the faint sound of machinery whirring down that even his ghost hearing struggled to hear were all the confirmation he needed.

His parents followed him all the way up, not even pausing when he dropped the ladder that led them to the top of the Ops Center, where nothing else remained over them. His core sang and he saw the first sliver of the moon begin to pass in front of the sun and he knew his countdown had begun as they each sat down, his parents pulling their hoods back on to protect their eyes, Danny fishing eclipse glasses from his pocket even though he didn’t need them.

“I need to talk to you two.” Danny said, leaping headfirst into whatever destiny determined for him as he felt his hold on his mask begin to shatter.

“Should’ve known, you haven’t asked to spend time with us in years,” Mom teased, but Danny sensed the pain behind her words.

~~~~~~

Maddie smiled at her son, though his entire focus was on the slowly disappearing sun above them. Her husband, who sat on Danny’s other side, had a similar smile. It had been so long since Danny wanted anything to do with them, that they weren’t forcing him to do.

“If Jazz or I came back. What would you do?” Danny asked, his gaze never wavering from the show in the sky.

Both parents’ smiles were wiped away, confused frowns replacing them.

“What do you mean, Danno?” Jack asked.

“The Fentons have one rule. What if Jazz or I broke it?”

“The only rule we have is to stay dead,” Maddie said, suddenly uncomfortable with the direction this conversation was going. She knew she was being less than subtle when she reached for Danny’s hand, holding it in her own, reassuring herself when she felt the pulse of his heart beneath his skin.

“I know.”

Maddie hesitated. What would they do? Obviously, it wouldn’t be her children anymore, but it would still be an echo of them. Could she hunt something that had once been her child?

It was Jack who ended up answering. “I… I don’t know. I couldn’t shoot something that looked like you, I know I couldn’t. So please move on, if it ever comes to that.” Jack swallowed, pain in his eyes as he even contemplated the idea of their son dying. “Please don’t linger.”

“And if it isn’t that easy? To just move on?” Danny asked. He began to look fuzzy around the edges, though Maddie didn’t even really acknowledge it, eyes full of tears as they were.

“I… I don’t know, Danny.” Maddie admitted. “I couldn’t hurt you. I couldn’t. Not something with your face.”

“It may not look like my face anymore.” Danny said cryptically.

Maddie was still struggling for words when Danny continued.

“Want to know something cool Sam discovered in one of her ghost books?”

“Uh. Uh, sure?” Maddie stuttered out, though some relief settled within her. Clearly, something in Sam’s books had been wrong and had caused a train of thought more painful than Maddie had ever imagined.

“Eclipses are… hm, kind of like holy days for ghosts.” Danny began and Maddie fully relaxed. Ghosts weren’t sentient enough to have anything approaching religion or faith. “You can’t hide under an eclipse. It’s night and day both turning their gaze to you and no disguise can bear both the sun and moon’s scrutiny.”

The moon continued to inch further in front of the sun.

“I…” Danny swallowed harshly. “I didn’t mean to.” He said, pulling off his glasses and tossing them from the roof.

“Danny!” They both yelled in worry, preparing to cover his eyes, but he scooted back too quickly.

Neither knew what to do when green eyes stared down at them. “I didn’t mean to stay.” He repeated and Maddie could no longer deny the fuzziness of his body wasn’t a trick her eyes were playing on her. He looked up at the sky again and Maddie just looked at her husband, shock, fear, worry, grief painting his features.

When she returned her gaze to her son, Maddie’s mind felt oddly empty. She just… she didn’t understand. When did her son die? She had just felt his heartbeat!

But there was no denying she was talking to her son’s ghost as he raised into the air, still with his legs crossed, floating without effort.

“Danny?” Jack whispered, reaching for him. Danny visibly flinched when his father managed to get his hand, but he didn’t pull away, even as Jack pulled him back to the ground. “Danny?” He repeated, pain the like of which Maddie had never heard from her husband in his voice as he grasped both of Danny’s shoulders, as though seeing him for the first time.

“I’m sorry,” Danny whispered back, the faintest hint of an echo seeping into his voice. Still in his father’s hands, he turned slightly to look at her. “I’m sorry.” He repeated, tears slipping from his eyes too.

He returned his gaze to his father and seamlessly pulled away from him, phasing through Jack’s hands. “That… that isn’t all.” He said. The eclipse wasn’t at totality yet, but it was nearly there. “You know two of my masks, my disguises. No one knows what I actually look like anymore. Not even me.”

Danny stood and stepped back away from them. “First, I need you to understand. I didn’t mean to die.” Those words were a knife to Maddie’s heart. “I didn’t mean to come back.” Suddenly, Maddie didn’t care about the stupid old Fenton rule. “But I’m happy. I’m still here. I… I’m still Danny. Still your son.” Maddie could no longer hold back tears at the last statement, how unsure he sounded in those few words despite everything else said with such confidence. No words came to her to say though, the lead in her chest suffocating her as his eyes continued to glow green.

“How long?” Jack asked, slightly lifting up his hood and letting a stream of tears escape. He wasn’t looking at the eclipse anymore.

“A little over two years.” Danny admitted and whatever was left of Maddie’s heart shattered so hard it was nearly audible. That long? How had her son been dead for two years and his parents didn’t know?

Suddenly all of their ‘malfunctioning’ inventions made a lot more sense.

“But!” He continued, motioning for both of them to look at him. “I’m only half ghost. I… my accident with the portal, do you remember?” Maddie pressed her hand to her mouth as she began to actively, loudly sob.

Her invention had killed her son.

“Half?” Jack asked, emotions wavering in his voice. “That… that isn’t possible, son.”

“People said the same thing about ghosts.” Danny replied simply. “It’s time.”

Maddie could tell when totality hit, even if she hadn’t seen the change in color and light, hadn’t seen it out of the corner of her. Because she saw her son.

Her heart knew it was her son, even if her eyes didn’t.

As soon as the moon fully blocked the sun, he changed. The fuzziness faded from his edges. He grew taller, darker, his hands suddenly too long. He was still humanoid, but only barely. His torso stretched too far, his legs too thin, his face too blue. Inexplicably, she still saw the human in him. His heart shone through the darkness of his chest, his veins glowed. She could see his heart beating. Every time it pumped, his veins burned a very human red, fading to the green of his eyes, only to repeat the cycle at his next heartbeat, the crown floating above him pulsing in tandem. As she watched, a second set of what looked like veins began to glow a solid green, but the shape was wrong. It took her mind a moment to realize this new pattern of thin branches were shaped like lightning and only shot through half his body.

Maddie felt like she should be terrified. The being in front of her was monstrous, the thing children were warned would get them if they misbehaved.

But even as the… the thing in front of her opened his mouth and showed too sharp teeth, she didn’t fear him. He bit nervously at his lip, he rubbed a hand behind his neck.

In his mannerisms, she knew it was still her son in front of her.

Though, as she studied white hair, as the monochromatic symbol glowed on his chest, she wondered how she hadn’t seen it before. How she’d never seen her son in Phantom.

Maybe because Danny Fenton was a human boy and Danny Phantom was a long dead teenager. She’d never looked too closely.

“Mom?” He asked, voice echoing with static beneath, though it did nothing to hide the fear beneath. “Dad?”

~~~~~~

Danny had never felt as free as he did in that moment, the restraints of the mask he wore deteriorated to nothing. He had known, for a long time, that the way Phantom looked wasn’t the true way he was, but he’d always been too afraid to see what he may really be under the surface.

Phantom looked human, Phantom didn’t scare the people.

As he yielded to the eclipse, let it unravel every disguise he’d forged, he knew he would return to his costume as soon as he could. His body was too long, too thin, too tall. He could see his veins changing color as his ghost side and human side fought for dominance, could see his death scar glowing brightly in the pitch black that was his skin. His teeth felt too sharp against his tongue, his hair brushed against ears that were too long, a crown he kept trying to refuse weighing him down.

He had never seen this before. Only his death scar, though it remained hidden beneath his jumpsuit.

As free as he felt, he also knew he was horrific.

His parents’ emotions tasted sharper, sweeter, than anything ever had before. The horror and sorrow they felt tasted like ash.

But the acceptance was better, honey-like and with a pleasant aftertaste.

It was their love, though, that tasted better than anything he’d ever experienced before.

“Danny.” His mother said, standing and looking up at him, dwarfing her. He’d be dwarfing his father too right now. Danny hesitated then knelt down onto his knees, so he only towered slightly over her. “My son.” She continued, holding open her arms.

“Mom.” He said, voice breaking as tears spilled from him, as he accepted her embrace.

Jack said nothing, just enclosing his wife and son in his arms.

As they embraced in silence, the moon continued to move, allowing the sun’s light to spread again. Danny felt his masks come back to him and welcomed them, despite the constricted feeling he now was aware of, that had always been there.

When his parents pulled away, it was normal Danny Phantom who stood in front of them, shrunk back to his normal size.

There were a lot of discussions, a lot of guilt he knew he and his parents would have to work through.

But as love filled the air, filled his entire being, nourishment down to his very core, Danny knew it would all be okay.

#grace writes #danny phantom #dannymay2023 #Dannymay #Day 6 #Eclipse #danny fenton #jack fenton #maddie fenton #I'm really proud of this one???#It's kinda angsty but it's happy

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