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ghostly-penumbra · 1 year

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Seven Ways to Summon the Ghost King

Chapter Two: The Friend of a Friend

[1] [here] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Ao3

Summary: Dean wants his brother's soul back. Danny is ready to help.

Warnings: Some blood and the aftermat of a fight.

- - -

Dean left the shitty store and Doc. Roberts’ shitty ‘office’, standing in the middle of the convenience store that served as a front for the doctor’s more arcane business. “This better work.” He said to himself. “Messorum evoco qui me titigit.”

“Dean? What the Hell?”

Dean turned around, meeting his reaper once again after all these years. “What do you know? It worked.” She seemed to remember him well, if her choice to go with her human-looking shape rather than her ‘spooky bed sheet ghost’ attire was any indication.

“I was in Sudan!” Tessa exclaimed. “What’s with yanking me ov-” She stopped, actually seeing his current state, “wait, why are you dead?”

Finally! To the point. “Tessa, I need a favor.”

“Oh, you’re kidding. You died to ask me-”

“Tell your boss I need to talk to him.” The hunter hastily interrupted. Only three minutes.

“No.” Tessa said immediately.

“Please?”

“Where do you get the nerve?”

“Desperate times.” That was as simple as he could say it, since he didn’t consider the bread aisle next to the rotisserie chicken to be the perfect place to talk about it.

“He calls for us.” The reaper finally explained. “We don’t call him.”

“You make an exception!” Dean snapped, his patience was wearing thin.

“I can’t!” But even a reaper had limitations. There were rules they were bound to.

“Can’t or won’t?!”

“Both!”

“Hey, um, sorry to interrupt, but you’re Tessa and Dean, right?” A lanky guy that almost looked like Tessa’s little brother interrupted and- wait, was he actually her Reaper lil’ bro or something? To be here with them in Limbo…

“Danny?” Was what she said instead, gobsmacked. “I mean, sir-”

“Danny is okay, really.” The guy said, putting up both hands in front of himself, as a placating gesture and to fend off the formality. “Anyway, Death sent me.” That caught Dean’s attention. “I’ll take it from here.” Danny told her kindly. “You can go back to work, don’t worry.”

Tessa looked back at Dean, lips pursed and finally nodded. “Behave.” She warned the hunter one last time before disappearing.

“So, who the fuck are you?” Dean demanded from the new guy. “Can you actually do something or do I have to ask for the big boss again?”

“Woah, calm down, man. I just got here. My names Danny, by the way. Death’s busy so she delegated to me. What do you need?”

Ignoring the odd pronoun, Dean went right back to the chase. “My brother’s soul is in Hell, in the Cage! While his body is up here being a fucking psychopath!” He was breathing hard, closing his hands into fists and then opening them again. “He’s down there being tortured by Lucifer and Michael and I… I can’t leave him there.” He looked up to meet Danny’s eyes.

Had they been green a minute ago?

“Where is his body?” He said with a chilling intensity.

“Why-”

“You said his body is up and about, I need you to keep it in one place. I don’t know how long it’ll take me, but I need you to keep his body in one place: where?”

“… Singer Savage, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.”

Danny nodded. “Go there, lock up your brother’s body and wait for me.” He commanded firmly. “Understood?”

At Dean’s nod, Danny put a hand on the hunter’s chest and-

-Dean came back with a deep gasp, as his lungs tried to compensate for the time his body had been starved of breath.

“I have to go.” He sat up shakily, just in time to avoid a shot of adrenaline. “I need to-”

“Aw, this was the best part.” The goth chick next to him grumbled, syringe still in hand.

“Oh, boy, you’re alright! How did it go?” Doctor Roberts asked him, and Dean felt his heartbeat accelerate.

“It was- great. Awesome. And I have- I need to go back to Bobby.” He made for the door, but Roberts put both hands on his shoulders and sat him back down.

“Dean, you are in no state to drive. You just came back from the dead, you need to recover.” He said, handing him a glass of water of dubious origin.

“No! What I need to do is go back with Bobby and keep Sam in one piece- place, and quickly. Danny said-”

“Alright, big boy.” The assistant drawled, smirking. “No need to throw a tantrum. I can drive you there.”

Dean seriously considered saying Cristo right then, because the smile Eva gave him was nothing short of devilish.

- - -

Dean stumbled into Singer Savage, thankful he had left his baby back here, otherwise he feared Eva would demand to drive herself back. That girl really was hell in four wheels.

“Bobby!” He called, entering the old house and looking for the old man. “Where is Sam?!

“Over here, boy.”

As he walked towards the voice, he noticed the disarray the place was in, with broken furniture and stuff thrown around all over the place.

He found Bobby sitting in front of a big metal door nursing his flask close to his chest.

“What happened here?” He asked in concern.

“Your baby brother is what happened.” Bobby said, pointing at the door with his thumb and taking a swing from his flask in his other hand. “Fuckin’ tried to kill me and failed!” He told him, with the last bit thrown over his shoulder towards Sam’s cell.

“So he’s there? He’s trapped?” Dean looked through the small window, finding a dirty and bloodied Sam sitting on the floor glaring daggers at him with heartless –soulless– eyes.

“As well as ‘can be since we don’t have a human-trapping circle yet. You know, other than walls.” Bobby extended his hand and Dean took it, helping the older hunter stand up. “Did you make it? You got the deal?”

“Yeah, I- I got the deal.” He put a hand in his pocket where the ring-

The ring wasn’t there.

Had the kid taken it while Dean didn’t notice? How could Dean not notice? Had he tricked him into believing he would save his little brother so Dean would back off?

A lump formed in his throat and his knees trembled. Had he damned Sammy?

“Move over!”

It happened in a flash. One second he was questioning all his actions that led up to this moment and the next his life of obeying his father was kicking in and he instinctually followed the order.

The next moment, both he and Bobby had a lot to process.

Not just because a glowing, white haired kid with a bruised face caked with a green substance had just passed through the steel door dragging an equally bruised, equally glowing Sammy, but also because he had left another person behind, laid on the floor just as bloody and bruised but not glowing like them.

“What the hell was that?!” Bobby voiced their thoughts.

“Adam?” Dean knelt next to the still form of his half-brother. The surprise and confusion were clear in his voice, not only for the fact that Adam was there but for his current condition. Was he actually alive? Was this his dead body and had his soul already left?

A blood-curdling scream tore Dean away and back towards the door, where he only caught a flash of bright light through the small window before he could finally find both Sammy and Danny thrown on the floor, unconscious.

Bobby turned to Dean, confused, “Son, you better start doin’ some explaining.”

- - -

“So, this half dead thing, how does it work?” Bobby asked Danny, handing him another ice-pack, this one going to his split lip.

“Usually better than this.” The young man replied with a grimace. Young man. An adult again, while his other half had been just a boy. “Usually I heal kinda fast, but I don’t think that’ll be the case this time.”

“Because you took on two archangels.”

Danny almost doubled over laughing, but his cracked ribs and Bobby’s firm hand on his good shoulder stopped him from causing himself more damage.

“Easy, boy.”

“Sorry, it’s just- I didn’t ‘take on’ two archangels. I didn’t even face them! I just, got in while they were at each other’s throats, distracted, snatched up the guys, and turned tail as fast as I could when they noticed.

“If I had actually tried to fight them, none of us would have gotten out.” His face had sobered, looking at his bandaged hand.

Who had he been holding with that hand? Would it had been Adam or Sam who got dragged back to Hell? Bobby shuddered to think that. These boys deserved to be finally free.

Speaking of which…

“But you still went to the end of Hell and back to get ‘em back. And I owe you for that. Thank you.”

The boy blushed and ducked his head, shrugging. “It had to be done.”

“No, don’t.” The weathered hunter gripped Danny’s shoulder more firmly, but still mindful of his injury. “Don’t undermine what you did, kid. You saved these boys. So, again, thank you.”

Ha had saved Sam’s soul, and if his soulless body’s previous attempt at patricide showed something, it was that Sam saw Bobby as a father as much as Bobby saw him as a son.

And maybe he hadn’t raised Adam like he had his boys, but he still was so young, with a whole life ahead of himself. He would have to come to terms with his mother’s loss and the years he’d missed but if he had that Winchester stubbornness in him he would be okay. Eventually.

“If there is anything I can do…” Bobby offered again.

“Uh, actually…” Danny’s sheepishness turned into outright embarrassment. “I could really do with a ride home. My friends and sister are at college and I really don’t trust my parents’ driving.”

Bobby huffed out a laugh. Of all things he could have asked…

“Sure thing, kid. Do ya mind if I call someone to pick you up? I gotta fix this place, and I really wanna keep an eye on these boys.”

“No prob’, sir, just, generally speaking, if we could keep the ‘half ghost’ thing between the people here, y’know, don’t let word get out, that would be great.”

“Understood.”

- - -

Sam and Adam were still out cold, but alive. Dean had wanted to stay by their bedside, but Bobby left no room for arguing in that he had to thank Danny before he left for home. Home, which was his parents’ house in Illinois, when he wasn’t at college.

Was he seriously just some guy? Part-timing as a reaper… ghost… friend of Death of all beings.

Said guy was currently resting against Garth’s truck, eyes closed and face tilted upwards just basking in the sunlight after having gone to the depths of Hell and back. Because Dean had asked.

Yeah, he should thank him face to face.

“Hey.” He called out as he approached.

Danny looked back down and Dean finally got to see his busted lip and split eyebrow, which had been easier to ignore than the arm in a cast, but harder than the bad posture hiding his broken and bandaged ribs.

“Hey, man.” He said with a weak grin. “Ready to move on, huh?”

“Yeah, I already called my parents, told them I’ll be visiting… I didn’t tell them it’s gonna be a recovery visit, though, or they would have insisted in driving here.” Danny said with a grimace. “I’m just waiting for your friend Garth to finish talking with Mister Singer, and then we’ll go.”

Dean nodded along but on the inside he steeled himself, cowboyed up, and began, “Hey, listen, about Death’s ring, I know you already took it but-”

“I didn’t take anything.” Danny said calmly making the hunter pause. His expression was knowing and serene. “If you had something of Death’s that she wanted back, there was nothing you could’ve done to keep her from getting it back. Death is everywhere and you can’t escape her forever.” He said it so matter-of-fact and with such acceptance that it rankled Dean, who had already died and come back as well.

“Ok, well, then you still went to Hell and saved my brothers, and I know you told Bobby we owed you nothing and only want a ride home but-”

“Mister Singer owes me nothing, but you do.” The halfa interrupted him again, leaving Dean flabbergasted.

Was he really saying…? Well, it’s not like Dean wasn’t in the middle of offering anyway, but still…

The hunter nodded. “Okay.” He didn’t know what he was signing up to, but he had already sold his soul once to save Sam, and he would do it again if it came down to it.

“You don’t owe me because I saved your brothers.” Danny explained. “I’d have done that for free, any time. You owe me one for not telling your youngest brother that you didn’t even think of him when you asked me to go on a rescue mission to Hell.” Danny’s glare wasn’t hateful or even angry, just disappointed and disdainful.

Dean was still stunned, he closed his mouth then opened it again but no sound came out. He really hadn’t thought… hadn’t considered… fuck. Shit! Damn it!

He shook himself out of his thoughts and nodded again. He deserved whatever he got.

- -

Garth and Bobby wrapped up their conversation, and soon enough Danny was out of Singer Savage and headed back to Illinois.

They still had to deal with the angels’ war, and see what would happen with Adam, what he would choose.

His brothers were fine, they were safe for now, and they would get better soon.

Still, as he watched the back of the speeding truck get smaller and smaller, Dean was left feeling hollow.

- - -

The first bit of this chapter was directly taken from a transcription of "Appointment in Samarra", the episode where Death has Dean do his job for a day to teach him the lesson that murder is okay if done by someone better dressed than you! asdfghjklñ. I just added some descriptions.

There, Death asks him "which brother" to save from the Cage, since Dean tty forgot about lil Adam smh.

Let's just say that the setting (me, being the one to write this) demanded Danny to be Not Cool with that, so this is a little fix it. I did this for Adam and have no regrets. Youngest half siblings for the win!

#Danny Phantom #Danny Fenton #supernatural #Dean Winchester #Sam Winchester #Adam Milligan #Bobby Singer #SuperPhantom #ghostly-scrypts #ghost king au #but it's not mentioned here #Appointment in Samarra #fix it #fixing the part the bugs me out anyway #💅🏻💅🏻💅🏻#Danny Phantom Crossover #Supernatural Crossover

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