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ladylynse · 5 years

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Happy Halloween, everyone! Here’s the last of my Star-centric Ectober 2018 fic, Helpless, in honour of Day 31: Breathe.

(Day 13: Help / Day 15: Explain / Day 19: Mistakes / Day 26: Sanity)

How come it seems like the more she finds out, the less she knows?

Danny’s hand clamped over her mouth.

Star did the natural thing: she twisted in his grip, and when she couldn’t break free, she bit him.

Hard.

He yelped, loosening his grip enough that she was able to get away. “Why did you bite me?”

She watched him shake out his hand, wondering how much he’d even felt that. She hadn’t managed to draw blood. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. “Because you grabbed me.”

“Because you screamed!”

A door banged open, and Danny lunged for her. She didn’t manage to pull away before he had a firm grip on her wrist. Someone—Valerie’s boss, maybe?—looked right at them.

And then past them.

And then he went back inside.

Screams were fairly common in Amity Park; even the locals still got spooked on occasion, and anyone would scream if the Fenton RV was barrelling towards them. It was good practice to see how close the latest ghost fight was to your backyard, too, to see if you needed to head for cover or if the ghost was harmless enough that you could toss a box at it and be done with it.

Star was used to that. Everyone was used to that.

She was not used to being looked through as if she wasn’t even there.

Danny dropped her hand. “No more screaming, okay?”

Star swallowed. She doubted it was supposed to sound like a threat, especially coming from Fenton, but…. “No more screaming,” she whispered.

“Right. Okay. We probably shouldn’t stay here. Let’s walk.”

She wasn’t about to argue—she didn’t want to stay here, and even if she wasn’t keen on being alone with him, running wouldn’t get her anywhere—but maybe…. “What…what about Sam and Tucker?”

“They’re used to me having to ditch them. I’ll fill them in later. They’re going to kill me for this anyway.” He caught her expression. “That was a joke.”

Phantom hadn’t popped up behind her and yelled surprise!, so she had a sinking feeling that that was the only joke.

Danny didn’t try to talk to her for a while. Frankly, Star was happy to trudge after him in a daze. What he’d done….

She couldn’t have imagined it. She didn’t imagine it. That had been intangibility. And invisibility. She couldn’t see how it could be a trick. The timing was too perfect. This was Danny’s doing, except that was impossible, because he was human, not a ghost, and—!

“Just breathe, Star,” he murmured, slowing down so that he was in step with her again.

Easy for him to say.

There wasn’t any way to sugar coat what had happened. She wasn’t mixing up intangibility and invisibility with anything else. He’d actually—!

Danny reached out to tug her into the park, and she flinched away. He looked hurt but didn’t try to touch her again. That made her breathe a little easier, and she followed him. When he left the path and headed for the bushes, she didn’t object. She knew where he was going now. Besides, if he’d wanted to silence her, he could have done that by now. He just wanted to talk somewhere private. She could handle that.

Probably.

“Look,” Danny said when they finally stopped in the recently-made clearing she’d hidden by not half an hour ago. “I thought you said you’d figured it out.”

She could still smell the freshly scarred earth. The remains of Skulker’s suit were on the far side, thawed now but covered in leaves and snapped branches from the fall it had taken. She knew it was just an empty shell, but it felt like a skeleton now. If Danny hadn’t known she’d witnessed the fight, why bring her here specifically? Didn’t he think someone—Skulker himself, maybe, or Technus, or a ghost with a similar affinity—would come back to clean up?

Is that why they were here, so he could catch whoever tried? Prove that this was exactly how he had been helping Phantom all along? And why she’d never seen him do it?

She wouldn’t have thought he’d dare come back when the first ones to show up could very well be his parents.

She still hadn’t answered his question, so she took a steadying breath. “I lied.” It felt strange to admit that so plainly. “People do that. You included.”

He stared at her. “But…but me being a halfa. And Phantom. You said—”

“Obviously, I added it up to the wrong conclusion!” snapped Star. She regretted the words instantly, but she didn’t think she could show weakness right now, so she squared her shoulders and stared him down instead, trying to appear more brave than she felt.

“Right,” he said in a small voice. “So what were you actually thinking?”

“Not whatever this is!” She crossed her arms, hoping he wouldn’t realize that she’d started shaking. She couldn’t seem to stop. “I just…. So it’s definitely not a title?”

Danny blinked. “You thought it was a title?”

“Like…like teacher, or mayor, or…or captain. I don’t know. Nothing made sense. I thought you’d tell me if you thought I already knew.”

Danny snorted. “I walked into that one.” He took a deep breath. “Promise me you won’t freak out.”

“Don’t think I can do that.” Was her voice higher than normal? She couldn’t tell. Maybe. It was definitely hard to keep it from quavering. She wasn’t sure if she was successful in that, either. This was…. She didn’t even know what this was. “Especially after whatever you did at the Nasty Burger.”

“I just phased the chocolate off of you. Or rather you off the chocolate. So it didn’t stain.”

“Sure. You just made me intangible. And then you just made me invisible.”

Danny winced. “At least now you know why you need to keep this a secret?”

Star let out a strangled laugh. “As if anyone would believe me if I tried to tell them. ‘Guess what, guys? Danny has ghost powers!’ Just because we live in Amity Park….” She shook her head. “Is this because of your parents? Or because of Phantom?”

For some reason, Danny smiled. “You really don’t get it, do you?”

Fantastic. Something she’d said had amused him. Good thing one of them felt like laughing about this because she felt like crying.

This was insane.

To think she’d doubted his sanity when it was her own she’d needed to worry about. This was impossible. People didn’t just have ghost powers, not even in Amity Park. What else could he do? Float? Fly? Make an ectoblast without burning his flesh? Oh, wait, training with this Frostbite ghost. Could he have been sending ice rays right back at Icebreaker if she hadn’t been there? Is that what he’d done once he’d gotten rid of her while waiting for Phantom to show?

“I’m a halfa. It’s kinda hard to explain. Ectoplasm mixed with my DNA or something like that. Just think of it like half a ghost. That’s what Poindexter told me.”

“Who’s—?”

“Not important right now. Just…. Star. Don’t freak out.”

She opened her mouth to make some smart retort about him telling her not to freak out just making her freak out more, but then—

Then she saw the light. The rings. Watched them pass over him. Change him. Found herself staring at Phantom. At Phantom. Amity Park’s infamous ghost boy. Paulina’s crush. The one who’d saved them all countless times.

“Star. Breathe. Trust me, it’ll help calm you down.”

Calm down? Calm down? He was a ghost—he was Phantom—and he expected her to calm down?

She didn’t want to ask how this had happened. Knowing might make it more real. And she could guess. Except this shouldn’t be possible, how was this actually possible?

The light returned, bringing Fenton back, and she wondered if she could chalk this up to hysteria. Maybe she could talk herself into it being a trick after all. If Fenton and Phantom worked together, maybe their timing really was just that good. And maybe they thought a trick would get her to stop digging into things she shouldn’t. Or maybe Phantom—

Wait.

Danny Fenton? Danny Phantom? He’d barely even changed his name. Or, come to think of it, his appearance. It was just so…. Who would expect Phantom to be human? Absolutely no one. Including—

Star covered her mouth; if her knees weren’t locked, she probably would’ve fallen. “Your parents—”

“Yeah. Don’t tell them.”

“Then….” She swallowed. She didn’t mind leaving the other topic; she could panic over what that meant later. This one wouldn’t necessarily be any easier to hear, but she wanted to know. “I heard Phantom…you…mention Valerie.”

Danny frowned. “When?”

“With Skulker. Here. I followed the fight.” Danny’s expression tightened, but he didn’t say anything. “You…you know how much she hates ghosts. Everyone does. But why—?”

“Ask her, not me. Just don’t…. Don’t tell her, either. Don’t tell anyone. Star, I could have the government breathing down my neck if they realize what I am. And that’s almost more frightening than everything with my parents because my parents might stop. If they realize it’s not a trick. If they believe me. But the Guys in White? They won’t. Ever. Because they won’t care.”

She wanted him to scoff, to tell him to be serious, but she knew they were beyond joking. This was…. “This is crazy.”

“Welcome to my life.” He gave her a sheepish smile, one she was used to him offering Mr. Lancer. “But, uh, since you know…. Can you help me?”

“Help you?”

“Keep this a secret. From everyone else.”

She closed her eyes. It did nothing to help calm her nerves. She couldn’t shut out the memories of what she’d seen or felt, couldn’t forget what she knew, even if she couldn’t understand it all. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Honestly? Because I thought you already knew it. And because after I blew my secret, you deserved more of an explanation, as much for your safety as mine.”

She looked at him again. No smile. No joke.

That wasn’t exactly comforting.

“I’m not asking you to fight with me. Just…just do what you can. Cover for me if you see that I need it, don’t tell Paulina or Valerie or anyone else, that kind of thing. It’s better that no one else knows halfas exist.”

The thought made her chest tighten. “There are more of you?”

Danny cringed. “Um, forget I said that. I can’t tell you that right now.”

“Ever?”

He shrugged.

He didn’t want to tell her more than he thought he had to. That was okay. She wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know more, especially right now.

Once, she would’ve been delighted to help Phantom in any way she could. Now that she knew he wasn’t really a ghost? It was…less delightful. Knowing Fenton was the town hero was disquieting. It’s not that she didn’t think him capable of it—he obviously was—but she just…. Did half ghost also mean half human? What was he? And how could there be others?

It made her skin crawl.

“Look, Star, just because you know my secret, it doesn’t change who I am. I’m still the same kid you were stuck in detention with last week. I deserved it. You didn’t. I think Youngblood was just trying to get me into trouble anyway.” He started rubbing the back of his neck. “Do you think…. Do you think you’ll be able to look at me the same way, even knowing what you do?”

She shook her head, not trusting herself to be able to lie right now. “This is insane, Danny. How do I even…?”

“You can talk to Jazz if you think it’ll help. She knows, too.”

Star realized she was finger combing her hair, one of her nervous habits, and forced herself to stop. “Right. So Jazz knows. And Sam and Tucker. And all the ghosts. Isn’t that, like, counterintuitive to the whole secret identity thing, your enemies knowing exactly who you are anyway?”

“For most of the ghosts,” Danny said carefully, “I’ve been able to call truces outside of Christmas. When I really need it. When we really need it.”

He didn’t see them as his worst enemy. That was reserved for his parents. Or maybe the government. Crud, why had she ever looked into this? Ignorance would’ve been easier than knowing Danny was Phantom!

She took a deep breath and tried to focus. “Let me tell the others that you know Phantom.”

“Star—”

“Hear me out. Not that you work with him, not if you don’t want me to say that, but that you know him. That you and Jazz, I dunno, take his thermos whenever it’s full and release all the ghosts back into the Ghost Zone again. They’ll believe that.”

“I don’t want more attention, Star. Or to give my parents another reason to ground me. Or to try to force me to wear the Spectre Deflector.”

“It’ll keep you from being Dash’s punching bag if he thinks you can introduce him—properly—to the ghost boy. And Paulina will stop any and all bad gossip about all three of you in its tracks. They have social power, Danny, power I don’t have. But I can get you protection if I—”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’d rather be a punching bag than tell them a half lie like that. Because even that much is risky. Star, after the Guys in White were in town, Tucker went through the school. They’d bugged our lockers, the classrooms, even the bathrooms. If they think I have more of a connection to Phantom than any other kid out there, I’m just putting myself in more danger.”

The Guys in White—what kind of name was that, anyway?—was the government organization he’d mentioned earlier; no one else would have that kind of power. Or the motive. Not that she was really convinced the government would care so much about high school kids, but maybe they knew more about the truth of Phantom than she had until now. Or maybe Danny was just thinking the worst, though she couldn’t really blame him for that when she could imagine how bad the worst was. “Really? Don’t you think—?”

“I’m not exaggerating. And I’m not overreacting. I’ve given up on a normal life, Star. With the way my grades are, I’ve pretty much given up on my dream of being an astronaut. I’m not normal. My high school experience definitely isn’t normal. Doing something like that to get a pass isn’t worth it. Tides turn fast. The beauty pageant taught me that.”

Star rolled her eyes. “I still can’t believe you picked Manson. I mean, I can, because it’s you and her, but—”

“She wound up in the Ghost Zone because of that,” Danny interrupted. “That whole pageant, me being the judge…. It was all a setup. You want to use your social influence to help me? Trust me when I tell you something’s bad, and spread the word. I don’t care if I wind up the butt of some joke if it saves lives.” A beat, then, “I can’t afford to care.”

Star raised an eyebrow. “And what does your sister think when she hears you talk like that?” She was glad the conversation had drifted. She was on familiar ground now. Talking about Danny’s social life, even his safety, seemed more normal than him talking about what being a halfa really meant. She really didn’t want to think about that right now. Focusing on consequences she could understand was a lot easier.

Danny huffed. “When I accidentally do, she gives me a lecture. And a hug. It’s annoying.”

Star didn’t need to have a sibling to know that it wasn’t annoying. Not really. If it was, it was at least annoying but appreciated.

He wanted to change the topic; she could see that from his body language. She sucked in a breath and obliged. “Okay. So. You’re…you’re actually Phantom. A halfa. Probably because of your parents, but you don’t want to share details, and I get that. Huge secret, at least from the humans, with potentially bad consequences if something gets out.” He opened his mouth, probably to correct her, but she held up a hand. “Let me finish, okay?”

“Okay,” he mumbled. He started tracing lines in the dirt with the toe of his shoe instead of facing her, but that was fine. This was almost easier to work out when he wasn’t staring her in the face.

“You don’t want to tell anyone anything, not even something small, like that you help Phantom. Even though that’s what you told me.”

“That was only because you kept asking questions,” he muttered. “I had to tell you something to get you off my back.”

“Right. I’ll help you come up with better lies later because obviously no one else is any better at it than you are.” Star took another deep breath and tried to gather her thoughts. “You could have tried lying again, you know. I might not have believed you, but I probably wouldn’t have pushed it. That was…. It was freaky. I would’ve told myself that you and Phantom were just trying to mess with me or something. I still tried.”

Danny looked up. “And how long do you think you would have believed that before realizing that you were just lying to yourself? How long before you decided the curiosity was driving you crazy and you started taking bigger and bigger risks to find out the truth? You’d be good with one of my mom’s Fenton Utility Weapons, but I’m pretty sure you don’t already have one. Which would be a problem if you accidentally poked the wrong bear. Some of these guys have multiple sets of teeth, and their bark definitely isn’t worse than their bite.”

He thought she’d run out after ghosts on her own. “You think I’d be stupid enough to do that?”

He snorted. “You followed me and Skulker, didn’t you? After you almost got hit by some of his missiles?”

“I didn’t tell you that until after you told me.”

“Doesn’t make me wrong. It just proves my point. Not telling you now would be dangerous. If you hadn’t seen me use my powers, sure, I probably would’ve tried to come up with something again, but I can’t…. I can’t cover that up, Star. That’s why I’m trying to be more careful about it. Especially now that I can control it. I couldn’t off the start. It was rough. That’s why I kept dropping stuff in chem.”

Star blinked. “That’s when this started? Way back then?” But he was right, of course. Before Phantom was called Phantom, even before he’d been dubbed Invis-o-Bill….

“That’s when everything started. When my parents finished the portal. When all the ghosts started coming through. This is my fault. I’m just trying to fix my mess. Sam and Tucker got sucked into it. Then Jazz. Now you. And I really don’t want you caught up in this. So just…. Trust what I tell you. Keep your head down. Cover for me if Sam and Tucker can’t. Pretend you don’t know, and hopefully the ghosts will leave you alone.”

Star stared at him. “You think I’m going to be a target now? I thought you said telling me was safer!”

“It is.”

“Not if I have ghosts after me!”

“You won’t! Or you shouldn’t. Not more than normal. Just…trust me.”

It was the same thing he’d told her back in the beginning of all this. He hadn’t wanted to tell her anything then, hadn’t wanted to let her in on this. Even now that he had, he didn’t want to tell her everything. She wasn’t even sure if this was half of it. She’d been left with questions then, and she definitely still had questions now, but—

Star took a slow, steady breath. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Calm down. Think clearly. Figure things out.

“Please?”

She hadn’t really trusted that Fenton could help her when she’d been trapped with him, but he had. And she certainly trusted Phantom to save her in the past. So if it came down to it, knowing they were the same person, knowing what Danny was really capable of—

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll trust you. And I’ll keep your secret. But you’ve gotta do something for me, too.”

He looked worried now. “What?”

“I don’t want to go out and fight ghosts all the time, but if I’m caught in another attack, especially if I might be a target, I don’t want to be helpless like that again. I hate that. So get me a weapon and show me how to use it.”

She wasn’t lying; she did hate feeling helpless. It wasn’t just to get Valerie off her back, either, even though Star knew Valerie wouldn’t drop the subject until she at least agreed to think about learning something. Of course, Star was happy to let Valerie think her influence was the reason behind it all. It was a lot easier than explaining how she might find herself targeted by more ghosts than she had in the past.

Besides, if learning some weapon—not the lipstick thing; that really would be too dangerous for her—helped clear up whatever Danny wasn’t telling her about Valerie, then all the better. Not that Star would push if it didn’t. One earth-shattering revelation was enough for this week. Not that she thought it was that bad, whatever it was. The venom in Valerie’s voice whenever she talked about ghosts definitely wasn’t faked. There was no way Valerie was another one of these halfas Danny didn’t want to talk about.

Hopefully, she didn’t actually know any of the others.

Not that Danny made it easy to believe that when he purposefully didn’t tell her anything else.

It made her think she did know more of them.

She didn’t want to.

Danny smiled, his relief helping to soothe her nerves, just a little bit. “Deal,” he said, offering his hand.

They shook on it.

She didn’t know what she was getting into, what she’d already gotten herself into. Not really. But at least…at least she’d be a little more prepared for whatever Amity Park decided to throw at her next.

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#ectober 2018 #ectober2018 #danny phantom #phanfiction #dp fanfiction #fanfiction #danny fenton #star #my writing #ladylynse #dp snippet #snippets

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