#ectopus

[furiarossa]

Doctor Mad meets Madam; same prompt, two different worlds, two different Maddie Plasmius!

When, thanks to the interactions on Mad's presentation post on Tumblr, we spotted someone else that had an halfa Maddie AU going on too we already knew we wanted to make a little interaction between them (hope that's alright, her storyline is so intriguing)! These two would make a fearsome Evil Science team... RIP little ectopus.

Mad Plasmius (right) belongs to us, while Madam Plasmius was created by @lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks and we drew her with an heavy inspiration from @redrobin-detective's design for her! 

[Oh, and a lot more of our Danny Phantom fanarts: Here’s our tag!]

★ Instagram|Facebook|FurAffinity|Deviantart|Commission prices★

#danny phantom #maddie fenton #redesign #mad plasmius #maddie plasmius #madam plasmius #ectopus #art #my art #crossover #fanart #my fanart #colored work #traditional art #fantasy #ghosts #my danny phantom #2024

[daily-dose-of-danno]

Season 1, Episode 7 - Bitter Reunions

#bitter reunions #danny phantom #ectopus #daily dose of danno

[thankchaosforspellcheck]

I know most people headcanon the ectopus ghosts as just forming in the ghost zone naturally but I, personally, think it would just be really funny if they were ghosts of actual octopuses because this implies that:

a) octopuses are more likely than any other aquatic creature to come back as a ghost

or

b) that most aquatic creatures come back, and octopuses are just so fucking angry that they are waaaay more likely to leave the zone and pick a fight

#ectopus #danny phantom #dp #ghost zone #dp theories #dp headcanons

[roselinethefae]

Ectopus stained glass window

what it says on the tin

#ectopus #danny phantom #dp

[sidneypoindexter]

how to avoid losing yourself to the abyss:

just don't do it. say no thanks.

the inevitable march of time cannot make your human consciousness fade away without your consent.

#danny phantom #skulker #skulker dp #dp fanart #my art #glitch in time ectopus/general blob ghost lore gave me skulker ideas #if anyone can recognize the specific prehistoric culture i put hints to in his living self #u get a cookie

[ectopus]

I hope it's okay that I request twice. If not I understand ^^

This is my boy Maz! He's based on the mad hatter. Could you possibly draw him with Cater? Maz actually tends to get in trouble with Riddle since he is unable to control his abilities. He tends to cause a little havoc on accident. Maybe Cater is comforting him?

Get angsted idiot haha

#There will be no comfort in the ectopus blog #Only suffering and agony #This was your first mistake as a requester #Twst oc #Twisted wonderland oc #Twst #twisted wonderland #Twst fanart #Request

[stealingyourbones]

Submitted Prompts #136

So we all know the typical “Danny and Damian are the demon twins” with Danny dying/running away from the League and ending up with the Fentons. How about a little twist?

Danny has been enjoying his life as simply “Danny Fenton, the screwup of Casper High” instead of “Danyal Al Ghul.” Then the GIW start getting much more threatening. So far they haven’t managed to capture any ghosts more complicated/sentient than a blob ghost/ectopus, but their terrible aim and general lack of care for the safety of bystanders has led to a couple of civilian deaths. He only finds out about this when someone mentions that the death of (insert throwaway character here) is the tenth death caused by the GIW.

This cannot stand.

Danny decides the best way to protect Amity Park and ghosts in the realms is to fall back on his League training. The first time he tries to resurrect Danyal, they almost catch him when he goes to get rid of some of the members, and Danny has to think of a new strategy. Insert the Fenton Dreamcatcher thing (I forgot the name, the separation device), and now he’s undetectable. He sticks his ghost half in a thermos to prevent anyone from getting their hands on it, and proceeds to take down important members of the GIW.

After all, they expect attacks from ghosts, they do not expect a very human assassin. Danny keeps track of who he should target next in a little black book he stores in his chest when not in use. All the writing is in Arabic, so anyone who could get their hands on it would struggle to read it, especially if it’s a cipher only used by the League.

Danny, of course, does not tell anyone about this. He’s doing this as Danyal, not Danny, and as such, does not see any reason to let anyone know. Why should they? After all, Danny is the person who couldn’t kill a fly, let alone a human. He’s safe from suspicion, and he never lets anyone know otherwise.

______________________

Aka let him go Feral to protect those he loves. He was born and raised an assassin, no matter how much time has passed between the League and his adoption with the Fentons, he still has a kill count that is very high. And now he has more targets, and satisfies his obsession (protection) in a way that cannot be even remotely traced back to him.

Apologies for any formatting errors, I’m on mobile

#bones submissions #dpxdc

[nerdofspades]

Okay. DP x DC idea. What if the League met Fenton before they met Phantom. Not in a ghost fight. Not doing anything particularly weird. Just Danny Fenton trying his best.

When they first notice the ghosts of Amity Park they all get a little worried about it, but no one can beat out Batman's paranoia. Ghosts may not have caused too many problems outside of Amity yet, but he doesn't trust that to stay that way. So he researches.

He, of course, finds out about Phantom, but shelves his usual just-in-case-he-turns-evil plans until after he can get some ghostly experts to brief the League. He does some cursory research into Phantom's history and abilities, which of course drags up everything in the Amity News cycle and some references in both Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome. (So Batsy gives up on the idea of finding out a human civilian identity. Kid's dead and his "life" has been lost to time until he decides to say something.)

But, more importantly, there are no good options for who to ask for lessons in ghost hunting.

First option: the GIW. Absolute morons who have never caught anything stronger than an ectopus, cause more damage to property than the ghosts, and have security so lax it doesn't even take Batman ten seconds to get in. Absolutely not. Not for the watch tower.

Second option: Vlad Co. Owned and operated by billionaire Vlad Masters who runs in the same social circles as Lex Luthor. He has better security than the GIW but the question with him is not whether or not he *could* keep the secret, but whether or not he *would.*

Third option: Dr.s Fenton of FentonWorks. They have the most cutting edge ghost hunting technology and the most published papers. But. Well. A brief survey of the town makes it very clear they are biased at best and bigoted at worst. Not something the League wants to associate with, but they are still the best of the bad options.

Or so they think until Bruce Wayne goes to open contact with them and notices the Fenton children. He knew about them before coming of course. Jasmine Fenton, top of her class with a full ride to Harvard and plans to major in psychology. Has historically been vocal about her distaste for her parent's work. Likely because of Danny. Daniel Fenton is a trouble maker barely scraping by in his classes that had an accident in his parents lab a year ago. Not the brightest and not well behaved, but by all accounts he's got a good heart.

And neither of then are very enthused about his presence in their home. Neither of them seem to care for their parents anti-ghost rhetoric either. Jazz tries to reason with them and Danny just rolls his eyes behind their back. And casually takes apart and fixes one of their inventions.

Bruce quickly makes a minor investing deal with the elder Fentons as cover and a quick way to keep and eye on their research and finds an excuse to get the kids out of the house to talk. Once out, he extends the Justice League's request for training with ghost hunting gear and a project to install anti-ecto security measures in their base(s). Danny is hesitant but agrees.

And Danny is so tired and so done with this crap when he's in the Watch Tower. (He's enamored with the space station for several minutes, but once he gets on track, the League think he's a mini Bruce. All business and telling them not to be idiots.)

He gives them a basic run down of what each item is and how to use it. Common ghostly abilities and power scaling. (Do not call him to consult on a blob ghost, ectopus, or other weak ghostly animal. But they are not to try and fight several of the stronger ghost. A fair amount of this tech will make their afterlives miserable, but won't actually do much beyond annoy them. Superman in particular should stay away from anything strong enough to overshadow. No one wants to fight a possessed Kryptonian.) He gives them plenty of thermoses, guns, nets, and specter deflectors plus some odds and ends for them to test out. And then he starts working on the shield, which he worked on with Tucker to upgrade so it would recognize his ecto signature as friendly (and a couple others like Clockwork, Pandora, Frostbite, and Wulf) so it wouldn't shoot him on the spot.

It would probably take several trips to get everything working properly, by which point Danny has likely made friends with a few League members. And a few of them have probably noticed something weird about him, but they ignore it cause he's a good kid and it's just a little weird. Won't hurt anything.

Constantine takes one look at the kid and is not seen again until months after he finally leaves.

But now they have working ghost defenses and they can protect people if a ghost tries to attack anywhere outside of Amity! (Yes, several ask Danny to install a shield at their personal hideouts as well. Batman tries to figure it out on his own and decides to just ask Danny for now. He'll figure it out eventually, but Fenton schematics are a pain and the power source doesn't look like anything he's ever seen before.)

Eventually everything is done and Danny goes back to his life with a large chunk of cash in his new bank account and a secure line just incase the league needs to consult with him again. Danny thinks that's the end of it until Batman shows up decked out in Fenton gear looking for Phantom.

Continue

#dp x dc #danny phantom #dc comics #batman paranoia #fanfiction #danny is so done with this and the league is not going to leave him alone #but he got to see the bat cave #and only the bat cave bruce will handle the manor personally once he figures out how the shield works

[the-witchhunter]

DP X DC Ghost Hunger AU thoughts

Original Post Here

More thoughts about eldritch horror Danny going around Gotham hunting for any source of ectoplasm:

Ghost don’t need to consume ectoplasm, they generate their own under normal condition. Danny needing to consume it is extremely unusual

The filtered weapons grade ectoplasm ghost hunters like his parents and the GIW use could sustain him, but it’s really not good for him. Unprocessed or directly from a blob ghost or ectopus is better

Danny is stuck in Gotham, physically he is unable to leave its borders. He is trapped in that cursed city and desperate to get out because his ghost half is starving

Gotham is cursed. Like, super cursed. The city has latched onto him and is refusing to let him leave

Danny’s Phantom form is changing. It’s starving and his form takes on a more animalistic and eldritch shape. Perfect for slinking through the shadows and hunting down ghosts.

Danny can’t/has minimal control over his Phantom form and when it comes out. He would be fine if he had enough ectoplasm, but his ghost half is running on instinct. 

His ghost half tends to come out whenever there’s any source of ectoplasm nearby, making it more like a werewolf scenario. He has enough warning to dip into a dark corner but he can’t really stop himself.

Red Hood is a source of ectoplasm. Anytime he is near, the hunt begins.

Red Hood is also really good at avoiding people. He’s aware something has started following him and has been avoiding it. Danny eventually encounters another source of ectoplasm, usually an unfortunate ghost or shade, and he goes after the easier prey

The other Bats have noticed Jason deviating from his usual patrols, but he’s been vague on the reason why.

#Danny Phantom #danny fenton #dp x dc crossover #dp x dc prompt #dp x dc #ghost hunger #Jason Todd #red hood

[peachdoxie]

Danny sped towards Sam’s room, barely able to hold onto his ghost form, let alone his intangibility – luckily, Sam had opened her window for him. Just past the threshold, he transformed back in midair and crashed to the floor. Danny tumbled head-over-heels and came to rest at the foot of Sam’s bed, upside down.

“Danny!” Sam and Tucker both shouted, rushing to his side. Danny just covered his face and groaned.

“Are you alright?” said Sam.

“You look terrible!” Tucker added.

And he did look terrible. Danny’s clothes were fine, and he was uninjured, but under his hands were deep undereye bags and wan skin more befitting his ghost half than his human half. He clearly hadn’t slept in far too long. If Tucker and Sam didn’t know better, they would have thought him a corpse, for real.

They looked at their friend with concern. “What happened, dude?” asked Tucker.

 “Vlad happened,” Danny said, voice muffled. He groaned again when Sam picked up his legs and moved them to the floor, but then he just curled up and lay there for a moment, dropping his hands from his face. Sam and Tucker waited for him to continue.

“I was chasing an ectopus through the park when I flew straight into one of Skulker’s traps,” Danny recalled. “He’s working for Vlad again, apparently. There was the usual gloating and mocking, and then he took me to Vlad’s mansion on the edge of town.”

Tucker and Sam exchanged a worried look: Danny was staring into space with a haunted look in his eyes.

He went on. “There was the usual Vlad monologuing, ‘I hate your father,’ ‘why won’t your mother love me?’, y’know the stuff, and then he put me in some new contraption that made me really tired, like even more than I already was being on three, uh, no, four days of no sleep. Only he didn’t tie me up right or something because I managed to get out when his back was turned and handcuff him to a pipe when he wasn’t looking, even though I could barely keep myself upright, I was so tired. And as I was trying to figure out what to do next, Vlad said ‘I loathe you, Daniel.’ And I said…I said….”

Danny trailed off, then groaned and covered his face again.

“You said….” Sam prompted, dread building in her body.

“What did you say, man?” Tucker asked anxiously.

“I said…” started Danny, face still hidden. “I was so tired, I said, ‘Love you too,’” – he peeked at them with a horrified expression and whispered – “‘Dad.’”

#danny phantom #phandom phight club 2023 #round 2 #anecdotes by peachdoxie #the prompt is the stupidest thing danny's done while sleep deprived

[tourettesdog]

The Breaking Point of Ice

Based on the prompt: "The stars were very pretty tonight. But he was so cold." by @quishaweasley-blog for Phic Phight Word count: 9,027 Warnings: minor character death, suicidal ideation, panic attacks AO3 Link

~

The sirens still echoed in Danny’s ears, a distant cacophony that resonated with the unsteady thrum of his core.

The firelight still flickered in Danny’s vision. Even with eyes shut, he could see the awful red glow licking skyward.

The smoke still choked his airway, squeezing at his chest until his lungs could have burst.

The heat still enveloped him, burning at his skin, raw and aching.

He blinked.

Silence lay around him. From up atop the hill, Danny could see practically all of Amity. Night had fallen— had fallen hours ago— and in the dark the lights of the city glowed. Not many cars were out on the street at this hour, and those that were went quietly, their lights slipping silently down the streets. Somewhere a dog barked, but the sound faded into the backdrop of crickets chirping and the gentle hush of the wind through the grass. 

The day had sweltered, a hot late spring day in its own right. Danny supposed the night was just as warm, but he struggled to feel it.

Beyond the fire still raging in the backdrop of his mind and the heat of the burns that blistered his skin, only the cold remained.

Danny shivered against it, hugging his knees tight to his chest. It did little to help, with the cold so close at hand. It lingered in his fingers and raced along his arms. It settled in his joints and found purchase in his chest. A wall of ice could have slid around his core— might have, for all it felt— and Danny could only shiver in its icy chill.

Frost had crept over the grass around him. His breath fogged, small puffs far too similar to his ghost sense. 

He could still feel how it coiled up his throat earlier that morning. A familiar chill that had him, as always, tensed for a fight. He never knew what to expect with that chill. It could mean something as innocuous and small as an ectopus, or…

The frost crackled as it spread, the sound a mockery of the fire still roaring in Danny’s ears.

A keening sound escaped his lips. Hands found their way into his hair, tattered gloves and raw fingers bunching in soot-stained white locks. Danny shut his eyes tight, rocking forward as the keening bubbled into a sob. Air couldn’t enter his lungs fast enough, each gulp stinging his scorched esophagus.

Danny could have plunged into the tundras of the Far Frozen, for how surely the cold gripped him. Icy hands clawing at his skin, tearing at the burns until they stung. The ice should have felt soothing in the wake of that burning heat. He should have taken solace in it, finding comfort in the cool of his core. After all, Danny had welcomed winter since that icy stone lodged itself in his chest. It was a part of him, as much as anything else could be— the cold as innately Danny as his name.

Yet it hadn’t been enough. 

Against the roar of fire and the flicker of flame, each rising higher and higher until it drowned out all else— that chill he bore in his heart and hands hadn’t been enough. 

How did a glacier melt so easily against tongues of flame?

The night was not as peaceful as it seemed. When Danny picked his head off of his knees, his eyes training on the spot he’d spent hours staring towards, he could still see the lights. After everything else had gone, the ice melted and the fire extinguished, the last hints of smoke fading into the atmosphere, those lights remained. A distant flicker of red and blue, the siren long-since quieted, though no less an echo in Danny’s mind as the crackle of flame.

If Danny squinted, he could see the blackened buildings the light circled. One was larger than the others, the epicenter of it all. The place where fire ignited and roared, chewing through wood and dancing over concrete as it spread.

Before the sirens, there had been screams. 

The lights of the city blurred as tears welled in Danny’s puffy eyes. He didn’t fight against them, letting them fall past his lashes and carve channels through the ash blotching his face. 

Danny hadn’t seen his reflection, but it didn’t take much imagination to know what he looked like. A mess. A raw wound. A failure, if anything.

A shaky, choked sob. A shiver down his spine, the motion causing aftershocks of ache through his body.

He deserved worse.

Shutting his eyes tight, unable to stymie the flood of tears that broke through, Danny almost wanted worse.

The familiar whine of an ectogun cut through the night, as if to provide that half-formed wish. Despite it, Danny couldn’t help but stiffen at the sound, each aching muscle tense with memory and instinct…

He didn’t bother to pick up his head.

“I finally found you,” said a familiar, raspy voice, each word raw and strained.

Danny didn’t answer. Still didn’t pick up his head.

He just waited, head bowed before her, accepting whatever came next.

Danny half expected her to squeeze the trigger right away. She had the perfect shot— the perfect target— and yet…

The ectogun didn’t fire. He could hear the barrel of the weapon rattling slightly in what must be shaking hands. Her own breath accompanied it, no less shaky.

“Get up, ghost,” she challenged, voice broken, straining on the last word. Danny couldn’t say if smoke or emotion had done worse damage to her vocal chords.

He still didn’t get up. Still didn’t lift his head.

The cold wrapped around him, more claws and teeth than anything.

“Get up,” she demanded. “Face me. Face me and—and what you did.”

Emotion choked those words, enough of it to squeeze at Danny’s own throat. Fresh tears welled in his eyes and he squeezed his knees more tightly as he let out a shaky sigh.

How could he face her? How could he face anything right now?

It had been nothing but a small mercy that the fire claimed his cellphone and any of the questioning calls it might have carried.

“Look at me.” 

Her voice cracked with a sob, the sound reverberating in Danny’s core like hairline fractures racing along glass. 

Despite himself, he lifted his head.

Valerie had been there too. Danny had seen her— had known— yet nothing prepared himself for the sight.

She wasn't wearing her suit at all. In its place, Valerie had changed into what he could generously call everyday clothes, though they looked more like pajamas. Loose, frizzy hair framed her face, without the usual band she pulled it back with. Her eyes were blood-shot, her face smeared with soot and her cheek bandaged.

It was the first of many bandages.

Danny’s eyes widened in horror as he took in the wraps spiraling over her arms and ankles, thickest around her hands and wrists. Her fingers poked through the tips of the bandages, raw and red as they held the ectogun with everything she had.

Danny tried to open his mouth to say something— her name, anything— but no words came out. He simply settled on Valerie’s eyes, vibrant green meeting bold hazel, each brimming with tears.

“Get up,” she said again, her teeth clenched, though chattering. Her hands shaking, though her grip was firm. She had the ectogun pointed squarely at his head. If she were to take the shot, Danny knew it would do awful damage at such close range.

(Enough damage.)

“Val…” he managed, the word a strangled warble through his wrecked throat.

Valerie’s eyes widened with surprise, the ectogun jerking slightly in her grip. Of course, Phantom wasn’t supposed to know who she was as a civilian.

Her surprise did not last long, easily replaced by a burning anger as her eyes blazed and her teeth grit with fury. 

“I don’t know how you know my name,” she said in a dangerous whisper tinged with as much fear as anger, “but I’m not going to let you trick me. Not like you tricked all of those people— those kids.” Her voice cracked on the word and a renewed jolt of ice rocketed through Danny’s chest.

“You’re a monster,” Valerie continued, hardly pausing to breathe. “Those people trusted you, and you— and you…”

Her voice trailed off, the tone hollow and shattered with emotion clawing at her throat.

Danny let the words roll over him, each insult falling in line with his own scattered thoughts.

“I know,” was all he said, his voice tinny and hardly there.

Valerie nodded, her chest heaving with unsteady breaths. Danny hadn’t even asked if she was okay— he knew she wasn’t. The burns, the red-rimmed eyes… Nothing about this was okay.

“I’ve known you were a monster from the start. You had everyone else fooled, but I knew. The Fentons were right not to trust you.”

A hollow ache lingered in Danny’s chest, squeezing with that awful chill of ice. Fractals of it coursed through his veins. Phantom had a tentative truce with Valerie, something new and hard-won.

Gone now.

“Get up, Phantom,” Valerie demanded once more.

Danny just stared up at her, wondering why she hadn’t yet pulled the trigger.

Val swallowed a lump in her throat, her lip quivering before reinforcing into that snarl. She kicked out her leg, striking him painfully in the shin with her boot. Danny tumbled back into the grass, swallowing down a hiss as his burns pulled.

“Where’s all that bravado now? Where’s your fight? You fucking coward. You made everything worse and couldn’t even have the decency to stick around. Y–you ran and hid and now you won’t even face me?”

Danny held her gaze, his jaw clenched, until it was too much. Shutting his eyes, Danny allowed himself to fall back along the hill, lying prone. The grass jabbed at the burns torn through his suit.

“If you’re going to shoot me, do it now and get it over with. I’m done,” he whispered.

A sharp intake of breath. A swear. Danny felt another sharp jab in his leg as Valerie kicked him again, 

“What is wrong with you? What game are you playing?” she said, her voice rising into a quavering shout. “Fight me.”

Danny opened his eyes, staring up at the sky overhead. It was a perfect night for stargazing, with hardly a cloud in the sky. Danny could pick out several constellations and, were it any other night, he might have lain there, finding as many as he possibly could. 

It was disquieting now, more than anything. The sky too vast and open. Too uncaring of the day’s events or the cold coiling in Danny’s chest. Frost continued to spread around him, the grass crackling in the wind with it.

“I’m not playing a game,” he said. “I… I wanted to help.”

The grass crunched as Valerie moved, her form swimming into view as she crouched over him, her ectogun still pointed at his face.

“Bullshit. I saw you. As if you ghosts weren’t causing enough harm— as if that fire wasn’t enough— what the fuck did you expect to happen with that ice?”

Her ectogun was so close to Danny’s face that he could feel the ectoenergy emanating from it. It burned against his raw, scorched skin. 

Danny swallowed, his throat tight and painful. His breathing picked up, chest heaving as he tried his best to force down the sob trying to well past his lips.

"I was trying to help," he repeated hoarsely.

If looks could kill, Valerie's would have given him a second chance at a headstone. She threw her ectogun aside and crouched down, grasping Danny firmly by the front of his suit. He couldn't help but flail in her grip, his hands landing on hers as she gave him a violent shake. Her eyes were mere inches from his now, reflecting the green glow of his own.

"You got people killed. Students— kids. My friends." Her voice broke and tears rolled down her cheeks. “D–Dash and Star are dead. Paulina and Tucker are in the hospital.” 

She gave him another violent shake and Danny simply went lax in her grip, letting go of her hands. Each word lanced his core. Ice struck through him— through his mind—

He could still remember, with far too much detail, the moment that ice had splintered, cracked, and fallen with far too heavy of a thud.

Tears slipped down Danny’s cheeks. He wanted to scream, to run, to get up and make things better somehow, but…

He couldn’t fix this. 

“I’m sorry,” was all he could say. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I–I’m sorry.”

The words spilled out in a broken mantra, each word feeling far too hollow. Valerie swam in his vision, hazy and indistinct through his tears. 

“You don’t get to be sorry about this,” she snarled, giving Danny another furious shake, her nails digging into his chest like icicles. “Why are you crying? You don’t get to fuck up peoples’ lives and cry over it.”

Danny just shut his eyes, slowly shaking his head. He didn’t know what else to do, what else to say. There was nothing to say, other than those apologies that came too late and held too little.

He’d run. After Danny had made sure Tucker was stable, he’d simply run. The thought of lingering anywhere near people, even those he loved and who loved him, had sent that chill sparking in his chest. The cold had lingered for hours now, the frost persistent and biting. 

He could still see Tucker on that stretcher, his leg a bloody mess. He could picture Sam and Jazz, scrambling as they did what they could to pick up the pieces and cover for Danny's absence when he broke down and fled.

 Guilt coiled in Danny's belly, winding up his ribs and squeezing at his core.

Valerie let out a snarl and threw him backwards into the grass, hard enough to knock the air Danny didn't need from his lungs. He winced as the burns along his torso pulled and squinted open his eyes, expecting any moment now for the green bolt of an ectoblast.

It didn’t come.

Valerie paced beside him, her breaths shaky and stuttered with sobs. She kicked at the frozen grass with her boot and sank down into in. Running her hands roughly through her hair, she stared at him with blood-shot eyes.

“Why are you still here?” she demanded. “If you’re really sorry, why the hell are you still here? Haven’t you done enough harm?”

If the blazing rage in her voice had hurt, it was nothing compared to this flagging anger. Despondency. Valerie had never looked more like a child then, gripping at her hair like a lifeline and glaring at Phantom with glazed-over eyes.

It was all his fault.

Danny dragged himself up onto his elbow so he could look at her. Really look at her. 

She was shaking. 

“I lost two of my friends. We weren’t close anymore but… now we never will be.”

Another jab at his core, enough to sharpen the frost around him, a swirl of cold air ghosting over the hill. Valerie shivered in the chill, clutching herself tightly. She wasn’t looking at Phantom anymore, just staring, unseeing ahead.

 “I don’t even know if Paulina will be okay,” she said quietly. “I don’t… I don’t know what I ever did to deserve this— what they did. You play the hero, but you keep taking and taking from me and…”

Her voice trailed off as she glanced down at the grass beside her. The ectogun lay there, a layer of frost coating the barrel of the weapon. She picked it up with a shaking hand and stared at the thing, turning it over in her hands like a toy gun.

“I came looking for a fight. I told myself I’d finally end you, whatever it took.” Her hold tightened on the gun, the metal creaking in her shaking grip.

Danny listened with everything he had, the chirps of the crickets dying down until the only things that existed in the universe were him, Valerie, and the ectogun between them.

Valerie laughed, the sound a hollow mockery to its usual rich tone. She turned the ectogun back around, pointing it back at Danny.

“I still want to end you. I want to take from you what you took from me— from them…” 

The ectogun steadied in her hand, the barrel aimed right between Danny’s eyes. He resisted the urge to close them, facing Valerie and whatever judgment she had to offer.

Her words echoed in Danny's mind, his thoughts spiraling with memories of all of the times Dash had bullied him. How many times had he wished that the bully would turn over a new leaf, or somehow get his comeuppance for his cruelty? How many times had he joked with Sam and Tucker that Dash and his friends probably wouldn't amount to much in life?

The universe had a funny way of twisting his words.

“Then do it,” Danny whispered— almost begged for Valerie to balance the scales he'd tipped so drastically.

It would just take one good shot. 

Valerie's mouth twisted, her face crumpling as she looked away with another hollow laugh, this one more broken than the first. The ectogun slagged in her grip, the nose of it dragging into the grass.

“You couldn't even let me have this,” she said, her voice hushed and cracked, hardly louder than the wind. 

Danny’s chest heaved, each breath fogging the air with cold. He struggled up onto his knees, wobbling slightly. For one awful moment the world tipped around Danny, his mind desperately careening towards the ground. He dug his gloves into the frosted grass, clinging on with everything he had.

Valerie just glared at him, her eyes no less cold than the ice in his core. Though she didn’t raise the ectogun again, Danny could see her grip tense on the weapon.

Shivering, aching with the cold and emotions he couldn’t even put to words, Danny opened his mouth. Another apology danced on his tongue, mingling with the desire to goad Valerie into that shot. He knew how to get under her skin. With the right words, Danny could have that weapon lined up, Val’s finger on the trigger, and all of his worries one green blast from falling away.

He wasn’t sure he deserved even that.

Danny opened his mouth, but no words came out. His lips quivered, his breaths hitching with another sob. Sitting back on his haunches, he buried his face in his gloves, hardly feeling his fingers against his numb skin.

“I–I don’t know if I can go home,” Danny croaked, the words tumbling off of his tongue without permission.

A scoff, wavering and small. “The Ghost Zone is going to be the only place you can go now. After what you did? You’re lucky the Fentons are too busy helping at the school.”

A shiver ran the course of Danny's spine, his core stuttering painfully on the word Fenton.

He doubted they would have much trouble inciting a hunt against Phantom now.

Valerie was right. After today… There was no ghostly protector of Amity Park. No safe haven for the half of him that longed to protect and tried to with everything he had.

It was never enough. It had never been enough, and now…

For all the cemetery lacked a grave with his name, it would gain two by his hand.

"They'll kill me," Danny said quietly, his mind running over the shelves of glinting instruments that lined the lab. "I can't tell them anymore. I–I wanted to tell them. I was trying to. I was trying…"

Danny dug his nails into his knees, rough enough to dig through the torn material of his suit and draw ectoplasm to the surface.

Green and wrong. Sickly and dead, haunting his footsteps, dragging everything he touched down, down, down with him.

He should have never stepped foot out of that portal, never brought this taint with him.

"Tell them what? That they should have aimed better?" Valerie challenged with a sharp bite of anger.

Danny breathed out a shaky laugh. "Maybe," he agreed. 

Maybe that really would have been for the best. Maybe if they'd just known sooner, all of this wouldn't have happened. No deaths, no fire, no ice— maybe the broken body of their son would have been enough to shut that portal and all of the hurt that it contained.

Danny couldn't even blame the ghost and its fire. It had been an animal, just some sort of strange large cat that darted through the classrooms, leaving a flickering trail off of its flaming coat.

The hurt went deeper than that flame and instinct. It clung to the ice— to Danny's own hands.

He replayed it in his mind, a slow slideshow of ice skirting up the sides of the hallway, forming a shield from the flames licking the walls.

The horrific crack of it splintering.

The moment that wall of ice fell.

Danny dug furrows in his skin, hardly feeling the cut of his inhuman nails. The ectoplasm that dripped from his knees left icy rivers down his legs.

“Maybe things really would be better if they’d gotten me— if I was gone. If I’d just died properly the first time,” he quavered, the words bitten through teeth sharper than his nails.

Danny expected another scathing comment from Val, for her to agree and offer him words sharp enough to shred through the last of his resolve. When only silence greeted him, the wind too loud in his ears and the chill colder than the grave, he felt something inside him splinter and crack against that breeze.

“Everything’s my fault. If I’d just— if I’d just died in the portal— or never gone inside of it in the first place. I–I turned it on. I turned it on and it’s all my fault.”

The frost along the grass sharpened, growing to jagged points. The wind swirled in a haze, tearing at the frozen grass, whipping his hair up like flames. 

(Flames that had done less harm than his ice. Flames too similar to…)

A shout cut through the wind, the word lost to the roar. 

Danny choked back a sob, swallowing down the teetering sensation of a wail.

The shout came again, louder this time, but no less audible over the wind and the frantic thrumming of Danny’s core.

Screams danced on that wind, echoes of his own, memories made real each time the wail made its way past his throat.

New ones joined the fold.

A shout— a bellow— a word he recognized. 

“Phantom!”

It could’ve been miles away, against that onslaught of wind and the keening in his chest. A word lost to time and space, yet still more rooted to the earth than Danny felt in that moment.

He could have faded away. He felt that he might. Just one last choked sob or unearthly wail and he’d simply drift into the ether, tossed into the wind, little more than a bad memory.

An ectogun whined, a cruel accompaniment to his own name, bellowed like a battlecry into the night. 

One good shot. Just one good shot and maybe he’d find his peace. Maybe the town would too, without anymore salt to rub in the wound.

When the blast came, a green bolt that stained the dark of Danny’s eyelids, he braced himself for the hit. Whatever careless acceptance he threw at Valerie’s feet, Danny couldn’t help but recoil with fear.

The jolt never came. The blast never hit. Confused, Danny opened his eyes, frozen tears shattering on his lashes.

For all the snow and ice around him, the late spring could have turned back to mid-winter. It glared brightly in the starlight, flickering with something other.

A bolt of green ectoplasm burned through the ice in front of Danny, a green glint dancing across the white snow. It smoked slightly, a mere inch from his boot. A shot intentionally misfired. A warning.

And before him, silhouetted against the moon and covered with frost, stood Valerie. She had the ectogun trained on his skull once more. She shook, more from anger or the chill Danny couldn’t say. She’d been too close to the arctic blast— too close to him— and, like everything, his ice had bitten her too.

“Wh–what the fuck did you say about the p–portal?” she stammered the moment she finally had his attention.

If ever someone’s eyes could blaze with the same intense glare of a ghost’s, it was hers right then. Fire itself didn’t have such a burn.

The wind died down, the last strong gusts of it teasing at Valerie’s frost-peppered hair as it settled inward. The cold positively turned around his core, an awful spiral that wouldn’t abate.

Danny came back to himself, shuddering as he took in the jagged spires of ice surrounding him, each spike pointed to the cloudless heavens above. Amidst it all Valerie stood, waiting for her answer. 

“Val, I—”

“No,” Valerie snapped, the word as flinty and brittle as the ice beneath them as she took a step forward, her boots crunching down the spires. “Y–you don’t get to say my name. You d–don’t get to let this g–go.” 

Another step closer, the crunch of ice an awful mockery of how it had groaned and splintered…

“T–tell me about the portal,” she stammered, still shivering, her gritted teeth chattering. 

It was a command, not a question. The barrel of her ectogun pressed against his forehead: a promise.

Danny met Val’s eyes, digging deep for an answer, prying it reluctantly from his throat.

“I turned it on,” he said.

A slow shake of her head. Valerie’s brow furrowed. 

“You came through the portal,” she snarled. “All you ghosts came through that damn portal— stop lying and tell me the truth.”

The ectogun pressed into his skin, the warm metal stinging his cold ectoplasm.

Danny wasn’t sure if Valerie would believe the truth, but he’d let her have it. After everything, it was the least he could do. The only thing, without enough strength or will in his legs to stand and escape the line of her shot.

“I–I didn’t come through the portal,” he stammered, his core thrumming, his chest heaving as he threw everything into that admission. 

The barrel of the gun dug in, so much so it might as well have phased through. 

“Where else would you come from?” she said coldly.

Danny clenched his hands into fists, his grip sticky with his own ectoplasm. He wanted to pull away from the ectogun. He wanted to flee. He wanted to be anywhere but here. 

Anywhere. Anyone. Anything but Danny Fenton, the boy who couldn’t even die right.

“I turned it on,” he admitted once more in a hushed tone. “G–got electrocuted.”

Just speaking those words aloud took everything Danny had. Exhausted the last spark keeping him sitting upright, until he slumped, leaning into the barrel of the ectogun.

He could feel it shaking against his skull.

“You’re lying. You’re lying.”

Fresh tears slipped down her cheeks. How she had any left to spare was beyond him.

Danny swallowed a lump in his throat. “I’m not. You know I’m not,” he said.

Her eyes danced across his face, lingering intimately on each detail. The line of his nose. The curve of his chin. The arch of his brow.

The shape of his eyes.

“Danny told me he turned the portal on,” she said, her voice so quiet that he could hardly hear it over the thrum of his own core.

The words sank in, the cold impossibly deep with it.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “Yeah, I did.”

Time seemed to stop as Valerie took in a sharp breath of air and held it. Danny could practically sense Clockwork on the margins, their hands held over this scene, guiding it along with all of the disinterest of someone who had seen it play out a thousand times before in a thousand different ways over a thousand different lifetimes. 

“No,” Valerie said, voice hollow. “No, you— you’re not him.”

The ectogun jerked in her hand, pinging off of Danny’s forehead. Valerie’s gaze snapped to it, her eyes widening with horror. 

She tossed it away as though suddenly burned.

Danny followed the weapon’s course, watching as it skidded through the snow and ice, tumbling until it fell against a large stone with a clatter. It sparked slightly at the impact and lay still.

"You can’t be…” Disbelief. Horror. Fear. “You can’t… He…”

Valerie glanced back to the ectogun. Danny wondered if she regretted letting it go. Her hands curled into fists, the bandages flexing with her grip. Her eyes snapped back to Danny and it took everything in him not to flinch.

“Prove it," she demanded in hardly more than a whisper, as though she hardly dared speak it aloud.

She didn't have to ask twice. She hardly had to ask once.

Danny had to reach deep for his transformation. The cold was so absolute, so all-encompassing, that for one heart-wrenching moment he wasn’t even sure if he could go back. His hands dug through the frost-covered grass as he dug deep, searching for that spot of warmth at the heart of his core.

It lay beneath layers of ice, frozen over and quiet, like the torpid slumber of a burrowing creature. Danny had to coax it out, throw kindling on the weak embers, and build a fire against the raging blizzard of his core. It flickered tentatively, struggling to find purchase, before those faint spring rays of sunlight managed to burst through.

Light sprang from his core, stuttering on its course as it cascaded over him. 

It brought no warmth. It brought no comfort. It brought only bruised flesh and raw, bloody wounds. Ectoplasm traded for blood, an awful and dark contrast without the green glow. The hillside grew darker without it, lit only by the ambient light of the city below and the stars that shown overhead.

The ice persisted, the cold so much worse.

Valerie had no words. She fell to her knees, eyes wide and searching, head slowly shaking in disbelief. Danny would give anything in that moment to know what she was thinking. Anything for her to just speak.

He wasn’t sure what he wanted her to say. He didn’t expect apologies or reassurances— he wasn’t even sure he wanted them, in any case.

He certainly didn’t deserve them.

But the silence yawned between them, as cold and biting as the frost coating the grass.

Danny found his eyes trailing skyward, almost absently. He picked out the Ursa Major constellation, tracing over each of its points. The stars always helped to sooth his wandering thoughts, but now they only served as an awful reminder.

Nights spent stargazing with his mother, before the world tilted on its axis. Making the most of late night patrols, fighting drooping eyelids just to soar higher into the clouds.

Each memory held a carefree freedom that was slowly slipping through Danny's fingertips, Times bygone and lost, without any time to mourn their passing.

“This whole time…”

Danny’s eyes wandered from the patchwork of stars to the blanket of frost. While his eyes had been glued to the heavens, Valerie’s own were locked on the frostbitten soil. She plucked at a blade of frozen grass, lifting it to her eyes.

“This whole time… you let me hunt you.”

Her nails pinched the grass, the ice fracturing. She kept her eyes on it, her voice shaking as she spoke.

“You let me hunt you. You… you let your parents hunt you.”

The ice shattered, the blade of grass drooping in Valerie's bandaged fingers. Her face crumpled, her mouth twisted into an awful grimace.

“You wanted me to shoot you. You asked me to— to…”

Her fist clenched around the limp blade of grass and she drove it down into the soil, her fist carving a path through the frozen grass.

Danny watched her quietly, waiting for her to look at him. Waiting for the moment her eyes met his and all of this became real.

Suddenly, Valerie pushed off against the ground and stumbled to her feet. Her knees buckled and shook but she managed it. Her chest heaved and her breath puffed out in fogging mist. 

Finally, her eyes met his.

There was anger there, but worse was the hurt. A pinched expression with tears welling on her icy lashes, her face still smeared with ash and blotchy with emotion.

She took two shaky steps towards him, closing the distance. Her boots crushing his ice with loud snaps and cracks that shattered the quiet night.

Her left hand dug into the collar of Danny’s shirt and binder, while her right wound backwards, curled into a fist.

Her punch struck him in the cheek, hard enough to snap his head back.

“Y–you were going to let me kill you,” she said, her voice a shattered, anguished growl. “You wanted me to.”

Her fist reeled back again, this time connecting with his jaw when it returned. Danny tasted blood on his tongue.

“Did you think that would make me happy?” she screamed, the sound raw and echoing over the hillside. “Did you even think how that would make me feel?”

She raised her fist once more, holding it shaking in the air. The bandages across her knuckles were dark with blood.

“Did you think it would make everything go away— that it would fix anything? That you’d just get to leave all of us behind, and that I’d somehow be o–okay with your blood on my hands?”

Tears rolled down her cheeks, falling on his face. Her hand stuttered in the air before she let it drop, instead fisting it into the other side of his collar. 

“Answer me!” she cried, shaking him as she had Phantom.

Danny had no idea what to do with his hands— himself. He tentatively closed one around her left wrist, just to hold himself up enough to keep his binder from digging into his throat. 

“I–I…”

“If you say you’re sorry right now, I really will end you, Danny. Give me an answer— an actual fucking answer.”

Danny swallowed, his lips quivering as he tried to put something— anything into words.

“I… I didn’t know what else to do,” was all he managed.

It wasn’t enough. He knew it wasn’t, not when the words first left his lips or when Valerie’s teeth gritted with renewed anger. 

“You don’t just get to make me your executioner when you can’t think of a fucking plan, Danny!” Her voice was so shattered, so broken and hoarse— from the smoke, from screaming, from the hurt cloying at her throat. “You never think things through. You never do, and because of it… because of it they…”

Danny took in a sharp breath of air as he caught her meaning. His grip on her wrist tightened and he couldn’t even bring himself to regret it when Valerie flinched. Danny struggled to get his legs back under him, pulling himself up onto his knees as he felt some anger bleed into the cold numb of his core.

“You don’t think I know that?” he shouted, his voice cracking, no less wrecked than her own. “I fucking tried, Val. I–I tried. I’ve always tried to help, whether or not anyone thinks that. Whether or not you think that.”

Each word shook. His jaw ached, with blood still on his tongue and a bruise no doubt forming on his cheek. He ignored the pain, grasping onto this flicker of anger. It felt good to feel it— to feel something other than the persistent gnaw of grief and ache.

Valerie’s eyes widened as Danny dug his nails in too rough, digging through the bandage on her arm. She gasped in pain, flinching, and it was only then that Danny realized just how close he was to snapping her wrist.

He let go suddenly and fell back as Valerie let him loose. She stumbled back too, hardly managing to stay on her feet. She stared at her shaking wrist where fresh spots of blood welled through the bandages.

Danny stared at it too, his core aching with regret. 

“I–I’m sorry,” he said, tentatively holding out his hand, reaching for her.

His core thrummed discordantly when she pulled back.

Valerie wouldn’t look at him again. Her eyes trailed from her wrist to the snow and ice around them. They skirted down the hill until she turned to stare out over Amity Park, her back to him.

She stood there for a long moment, silhouetted against the night sky with her hands balled into trembling fists.

Slowly, she crouched down, sitting on the hillside overlooking Amity. She wrapped her arms around her knees, her head bowed over them.

Silence. An overwhelming, pervasive silence, broken only by the distant hum of traffic and Danny's own uneven breaths. It was so much worse than the anger. So much worse than anything she could say to him.

Danny sat in that silence, drinking it in. He wondered if Sam and Jazz sat in a similar silence tonight. He wondered if Tucker was awake.

He wanted to go to the them and wrap his arms around them. Fall into their warm embrace and find some measure of comfort when he felt he deserved none.

He wanted it more than anything, even though he'd chosen to run.

Not that running had gotten him anywhere.

Danny stumbled to his feet, the world teetering around him as his head swam. He dug the toes of his ratty old sneakers into the ice and picked his way through it. Shaking, trembling— unsure above all else— Danny made his way to where Val sat.

She didn't move. She didn't so much as look at him. Hesitating, Danny waited for her to tell him to leave.

The crickets chirped in the silence.

Slowly, as though he were kneeling beside an immeasurably tall chasm, Danny sank down next to Val. He left enough space between them that she could easily move out of his reach.

Valerie's eyes remained fixed on Amity's lights. They were narrowed, heavy with dark bags that showed the depth of her fatigue.

That wasn't new. Ever since Phantom and Cujo tore through her old life, she'd always looked so exhausted.

Another regret he carried.

Danny followed her gaze down the hill. His eyes instantly locked on Casper High— blackened and battle-scarred as it was. The entire east side of the building was charred black, part of it collapsed where…

A shaky sigh left his lips.

"I don't even know what you are anymore," Valerie said, breaking the silence. It shattered around them, as fragile as his ice.

Danny picked at the knees of his jeans. They were red with his blood now and Danny could feel the furrows he'd dug into his flesh beneath the denim.

"I don't know either," he admitted quietly.

She shuffled uncomfortably beside him, pulling her legs tighter to her chest.

“You’re dead, though.” A statement. Harsh truth.

Danny nodded his head. “S–something like that,” he breathed.

Valerie lifted a hand to wipe at her face, sniffling.

“Did you… did you mean what you said about the portal?” she asked.

Danny glanced at her, but Valerie still wasn’t looking at him. She stared determinedly ahead, her eyes locked on Amity.

On Casper High or FentonWorks, he couldn’t be sure. Both were visible from the hill, neither a pretty sight.

Danny nodded. “Y–yeah. Electrocution. Don’t recommend it.”

His right hand rubbed over his left. The burns from the fire had started to heal across his hands, but his skin still bore a patchwork of scars that would never go away. One scar stood out above all else, a starburst from his palm that wound in fern-like spirals to his heart.

“It was an accident."

Valerie sniffed again. She pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes, taking shaky breathes.

"The portal or–or the ice?" she asked him, the last word strangled and drawn out.

Danny glanced at the ice still around them. They were at the edge of the worst of it, sat where the frost petered into rich spring grass.

"Both," he said.

Her eyes were on him now, hazel daggers that pierced through his soul. It felt like being scanned, as though each of Danny's sins were bared for her to see. For her to scrutinize and tell for herself whether he spoke a modicum of the truth.

"It was an accident," he repeated, not knowing which he meant. Both, maybe. "I–I always mess up. I got myself killed, and now… Ancients, I didn't mean to hurt anyone, Val. I just wanted to help."

She held his gaze, eyes half-lidded with sorrow as much as exhaustion. Her hands kept squeezing at her knees. Danny realized that she must be freezing in the chill that surrounded him, a misery made no easier by her own wounds.

She'd been hurt by the fire just as much as his ice and he couldn't imagine how to start treating either of those wounds.

When Valerie at last spoke her tone was careful and even, each word spoken with conviction. "Star and Dash are dead, Danny. That doesn't go away just because you didn't mean for it to happen… you know that, right?"

Danny nodded stiffly, clenching his fists. "I know. I know, Val. I can't… stop seeing it."

The fire. The ice. 

The blood that seeped like a slow river out from beneath it, reflecting the light.

Val chuckled, a dark and humorless sound that echoed in Danny's ears.

"That makes two of us," she said.

It wasn't just two of them. That hallway had been crowded, packed to the nines with students and teachers hurrying away from the flames. That only a handful of students had been crushed when his ice fell was nothing short of a miracle.

It didn't feel like much of one.

"Have you seen Tucker?" Val asked. There was something accusatory there, as if she couldn't believe that Danny would abandon his friend to sit up on this hill.

He couldn't help but agree with it.

"I made sure he was okay first," he said, his eyes sliding over the streets that led to the hospital. "He'll be okay, but… but his leg's pretty messed up."

Just imagining Tucker there had his core thrumming with unease. Tuck always hated hospitals. He didn't deserve to be there anymore than Paulina did.

(Anymore than Dash and Star deserved their place in its morgue.)

Danny only hoped Tucker and Paulina would be able to walk out of this one on their own two feet.

That hope was weaker than his own ice.

Val nodded beside him. "He's going to need you, you know. Whatever kind of pity spiral this is, you can't just abandon him."

Danny let out a shaky sigh. "I know."

Val's eyes narrowed, her jaw flexing as she grit her teeth. "Do you?" she challenged. "Just a few minutes ago you were trying to get me to… get me to…”

She trailed off, sucking in a sharp, wavering breath of air. 

“I know,” Danny repeated hollowly.

He could still feel the phantom press of the ectogun against his forehead.

Valerie pillowed her arms over her knees and rested her chin on top of them. She was shivering still and Danny realized that, for all the cold gripping at his chest, it must feel much worse for her.

After all, Valerie was still human. 

Danny focused on the ice around him, doing his best to try and call it back. He was getting much better at controlling it.

(Or at least he had thought he was.)

Slowly, Danny focused on the cold of his core, pulling that chill inward. He shivered with it, letting out a long, fogging breath as he forced the chill down. The ice went with it, melting into the air without a trace. 

The cold remained.

Valerie watched the strange process, her expression drawn. She ran a hand through the grass, as if testing to make sure it was real.

She opened her mouth to say something, closed it, and shook her head. The silence stretched on again, so much so Danny wasn't sure if she'd speak again. Finally, just when Danny was about to break the silence, she spoke.

"I have so much I want to say to you. I want answers. I–I want to hit you again, honestly."

She clenched her fists and Danny couldn't help but smile slightly at that. It didn't last long, dipping back into a deep frown as she let out a choked sigh.

Valerie picked at the bandages on her left hand, her eyes half-lidded as she asked, "Can you just answer one thing?"

Danny tensed. A hundred different questions rocketed through his mind, lingering most prominently on the dark tunnel of the portal and the glint of spectral ice. Valerie could ask him anything. About the Zone, about his powers, about his death—

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" she asked instead.

Danny's core thrummed uncomfortably, his chest squeezing tightly as a fresh wave of ice spread through his veins. It was all Danny could do to take a deep breath and push it down, fighting against that rising chill when the frost began to prickle at the ground surrounding him once more.

Lying back down in the grass, Danny's eyes skirted over the night sky. The moon was a bright crescent, nestled amongst the blanket of stars. He wished he could curl up in the curve of it and fall asleep.

"I was scared— am scared," Danny said, speaking into the star-studded sky. 

Valerie sighed. She shifted, lying back into the grass as well.

"You told Sam and Tucker," she said. Hurt.

Glancing at her, Danny found Valerie's eyes locked onto the sky. She'd always humored him when he talked about the constellations, asking him questions more so he could ramble than she could have answers. He wondered how much of them she still remembered.

"I never told them," Danny admitted, training his eyes back to the heavens as they were wont to do. "They were just… there."

A sharp intake of breath. Danny could feel Valerie's eyes on him this time, though now he couldn't bring himself to meet her gaze.

"They saw it happen," she said, more a statement than a question.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Danny nodded. "August second, right before freshman year," he said quietly. "We were just messing around. W–we… we recorded it." 

Danny hadn't seen the tape— none of them had. He held onto the thin hope that the energy surge from the portal might have destroyed most of the recording, but the camcorder they used had been modified enough by his parents that it probably caught more than he'd ever like to see.

Not that Danny needed the reminder. The event replayed itself in his worst nightmares— in Sam and Tucker's too, they had reluctantly admitted to him last summer on the anniversary. 

Just the thought had Danny's stomach roiling. Part of him wanted to race home and dig the tape from its resting place inside the wall that divided his bedroom with Jazz's and tear it to pieces.

Another part of him still wanted to watch it.

The guilty, cowardly part of him would leave it there as a reminder.

(Danny’s mind trailed to another reminder, locked away in Clockwork's domain.)

"I'd say I was surprised, but I'm really not," Valerie said. "I don't think I've ever seen you think something through. You just— do it."

And then suffer the consequences, Danny couldn't help but think.

Valerie sighed, the grass rustling as she shifted. Danny couldn't help but notice that she winced in pain at the motion. He was about to ask her if she was okay when he felt the wound edges of a bandage press against his knuckles.

Turning over his hand, Danny let Valerie slip hers into his. Her hands were bigger than his— warmer, though not enough to disperse the chill in his own. He could practically feel the ice of his core sapping away her warmth.

"This doesn't all go away," she said. Her eyes were still on the stars, not meeting his own. "Tomorrow we're going to wake up and none of this is going to go away."

Danny squeezed her hand gently, too aware of the bandages pressed into his palm.

“I know,” he croaked. 

Danny wasn’t sure how he’d face tomorrow— or the next day— or the day after that. He supposed he was already used to living with regret, but nothing like this. Though Dan’s actions weighed on his mind, at the end of the day they were mere memory.

Nothing like this.

Valerie squeezed his hand back, more tightly. 

 “I haven’t forgiven you,” she told him, her voice tense but determined. “Not for anything. Not yet.”

Danny hummed in acknowledgement, unable to answer. He expected as much, but it didn’t hurt any less to hear. 

“I don’t know when I’ll forgive you— if,” she continued, Danny hanging on her every word. Though he’d wanted nothing more than to be alone, now Danny felt like the only thing keeping him grounded was the rasp of her voice.

“All I know is if you ever try this shit again— you ever give me a reason,” she gripped his hand with everything she had, hard enough to bruise. The bones in his hand groaned under the pressure and Danny had to bite back a hiss.

“Give me one fucking reason, Danny. Give up— run away. I’ll hunt you down. I’ll make you regret it.”

The tight grip of her fingers promised as much.

“I won’t run,” Danny promised back, matching a fraction of that squeeze.

Val let out a huff. “No giving up, either. I mean it. If you ever sit like that in front of an ectogun again…” Danny thought his hand might break under the force of her grip. “Promise me that’ll never happen.”

Danny’s eyes flickered across the night sky, the stars blurring into bright streaks of light as tears welled on his lashes.

“I swear it won’t.”

Val’s grip finally loosened, though she made no effort to pull her hand from his. Danny could still feel the faintest hint of warmth in her hand, the sensation buzzing against his numb skin.

“Good,” she said with a nod, her hair brushing over the grass. “You… you owe it to them. Not just to Tucker, but… Dash. Star. Paulina, too. They—fuck, they should still be here. They should still be here and I won’t let you forget that, Danny.”

Her words faltered and broke, powerful waves dashed against the rocks of an unyielding shore. Her grip tightened once more, though it shook too much to have the same force. Danny had no words or comfort to give her. Nothing he could say that wouldn’t feel too insignificant. Danny couldn’t pretend that he’d cared about Dash and Star anymore than he could pretend that his own actions were justified and right. A thousand what-ifs and could-have-beens paved the path that led to this day. 

A niggling voice in Danny’s mind told him, under no uncertain terms, that had he only faced his fears sooner, he wouldn’t have made such a costly mistake.

He’d never know. Clockwork themself would never turn back the hands of time for what they considered such a lowly lesson—

Though it was one that would haunt Danny until he drew his final mortal breath.

The stars were beautiful tonight. Too beautiful, with everything else crashing down around him. Danny’s mind wandered, thinking about the girl beside him and her two friends that she’d never get to see again.

Danny had seen what that sort of grief could do.

At least Valerie was stronger than him… Not that she deserved any of the weight bearing down on her shoulders, or the heavy secret of knowing who had caused the death of her old friends— accidental or not.

Danny hated knowing that Valerie would keep that secret.

He hated how easy it would be to keep it, burying that ice deep inside his chest.

Though his eyes lingered on the crescent curve of the moon, Danny’s mind continued to wander, thoughts drifting to the town below the hill. To Dash and Star, and the two families having the worst days of their lives. 

Even his own family, twisted and strange as it was, hadn’t had to suffer that hardship. They’d simply kept on moving, oblivious to how the green glow of the portal buried the tomb rested beneath it.

The crickets chirped, their songs renewed in full force without the icy breeze. If Danny strained his ears, he could hear the distant hoot of an owl and the chatter of frogs in the park. The earth breathed around him, heedless of the cold grief cloying at his chest.

Danny knew he’d have to pick himself up eventually. The night would end, and when the sun rose there would be no quiet darkness to hide himself in. Sam’s cover wouldn’t last forever. His guilt would only keep him from the hospital for so long. The school, once it reopened, would have two less students in its halls, a yawning echo where they should have been.

Not even ghosts. 

Certainly no Phantom.

If the portal remained, he doubted it would for long.

At least for a little while longer, Danny could stare up at the night sky, Valerie’s hand held in his. The stars above them were so bright and beautiful, but Danny couldn’t remember ever feeling so cold.

#phic phight 2023 #phic phight #danny phantom #dp fanfic #fanfic #danny phantom fanfic #phanfic #dogfics #quishaweasley-blog #valerie gray

[ectopusses]

The Fenton Guy (@spaceghostcoast)

This ectopus outside my room is pissing me off so I'm gonna cook it. For science. a thread

The Fenton Guy (@spaceghostcoast)

I'm home alone and this bastard ruined my doomed session so I'm going to ruin its entire fucking life

The Fenton Guy (@spaceghostcoast)

I have decided to grill it. there’s no God here

The Fenton Guy (@spaceghostcoast)

I read in greece they tenderize by pounding them against a rock and letting them dry outside like laundry

The Fenton Guy (@spaceghostcoast)

and I’ll do exactly that. this idiot will sea the error of its ways

The Fenton Guy (@spaceghostcoast)

the smell is insane. it's like the ocean meets burnt rubber and battery acid

The Fenton Guy (@spaceghostcoast)

time for the taste test. wish me luck

The Fenton Guy (@spaceghostcoast)

My tongue wants a divorce

The Fenton Guy (@spaceghostcoast)

TL;DR It was pretty flavorful and chewy but I couldn't ignore the taste of undead juice. 6/10

#danny phantom #phandom phight club #phandom phight club 2023 #round 1

[dcxdpdabbles]

You liked my drawings so I made a few more just for you

The eye patch ghost

A ghost presumably scolding something we can't see

Cheshire cat Funko pop

Ectopus generator ghost

Evil tentacle ghost

Batman and Robin as cats

Vlad plasmus as a cat

Danny holding Vlad cat

From danny-and-hisshadow

OMG

BATMAN AND ROBIN AS CATS

Okay okay, I know that Danny is holding Vlad but wouldn't be hilarious if Danny finds Batman and Robin cursed into cats and goes "I always wanted a pet! I'll be the best Cat-Dad ever" unaware that he has kidnapped Gotham Vigilantes.

Thank you for the drawings! I love them!

#dcxdpdabbles #mun speaks #You guys are the best #art! look at the art!

[decibly]

"Is that the best you got, Technus?" Danny taunted as he dodged a pile of wires that had launched themselves at him, ripping themselves out of old pieces of junk.

" Of course not, ghost boy!" The other ghost yelled, throwing a random chunk of metal at Danny, who instinctively went intangible and allowed it to phase through him easily.

“You sure? I think you’re getting worse, actually!”

Technus let out a snarl, picked up a rusty old washing machine that began sparking with neon green lightning, and threw it full-force at Danny. He put up a quick shield, throwing out his right arm as his left reached for the thermos in a now instinctual anticipation of an opening, Just as the washing machine-turned-deadly projectile impacted his shield, it forced him backwards into yet another pile of trash in the junkyard.

“Ow! Shit, that hurts!” Danny yelped as the pile of rusty scraps that used to be a washing machine clunked its way down to the ground. His left arm had gotten crushed behind him, so he grabbed the thermos with his right arm and quickly captured Technus. He went into the thermos easily, and then in an act of habit so ingrained Danny had found himself doing it after capturing an ectopus that hadn’t tried even to fight back, checked himself over for injuries.

It actually seemed like he had gotten away relatively unharmed this time… apart from his arm. It wasn’t bleeding, but it was twisted in a way that Danny knew would hurt like hell once the adrenaline wore off. Danny wasn’t entirely certain, but he was pretty sure that it was broken. That was… bad, to say the least. How was he going to explain this away to his parents?

“Mum, Dad? I think I broke my arm!” Danny yelled out from the top of the stairs that headed down to lab, going straight for the point. He didn’t at all feel like talking around it for even a tiny bit, not with how much his arm hurt every time it so much as got blown on by a breeze.

“WHAT?” his dad yelled back.

“I THINK I BROKE MY ARM!” Danny yelled back even louder.

“WE’LL BE UP IN JUST A MOMENT, SWEETIE!” his mum yelled back.

It was this moment when Danny realised that not spending the (incredily excruciating and painful) walk back was probably one of the more idiotic things that he had done in the last 30 hours, along with not having slept. Maybe if he just told them a modified version of the truth? That would probably be easier than just coming up with a whole new lie.

Just then, both of Danny’s parents reached the top of the stairs, with neon green ectoplasm splattered over both of their hazmat suits. 

“So, Danno, you’re– oh dear! Maddie, it’s time for emergency fudge!” Jack raced over to the kitchen, stumbling a bit in his hurry.

Meanwhile, Maddie just frowned. “Darling, I think you might be right about that arm being broken. We’re going to need to take you to the hospital to get that looked at and x-rayed. How did it happen?”

Danny felt his face heat up a bit. “I, um, went for a walk? And there was a ghost fight, uh, not one that was too big but still pretty destructive, y’know? I kinda, you know, get a little bit caught up in it and I got hit with, um, well I’m not really sure, but it was made of metal, and- well- oh hey, Dad’s back!” Danny immediately reached for a piece of fudge on the truly massie pile on the plate that Jack had brought back from the kitchen and shoved it into his mouth, cutting off the conversation.

Several hours later, Maddie and Danny were headed back home to Jack and Jazz and Danny had a dark blue cast on his left arm that he was going to draw constellations on. Not for the first time, he was glad that it wasn’t his right arm that had been broken.

“Are you feeling okay, Danny?” Maddie asked.

He hummed a bit, then spoke. “It doesn’t hurt too much. I’ll be fine.”

Neither of them said anything more, giving Maddie plenty of time to think in the silence about why her son lied to her so much that she couldn’t even tell the difference between true or false anymore.

A few days after Danny broke his arm, Maddie and Jack got an alert for a ghost attack at Casper High. Ghost activity had been on an odd low for a few days now, so there was nothing to distract them from getting into the GAV aside from their inventing, which they probably needed a distraction from at this point. Wordlessly, aside from a “Wooo!” from Jack, the two of them grabbed a few new weapons that needed more field testing and raced up the stairs, out the door and into the GAV to head towards the high school.

Once they got there, it was obvious where the ghosts were. Phantom’s voice could easily he heard bantering with the inane box-themed ghost over by the football pitch from where Jack had haphazardly parked the GAV half on the footpath outside the school.  Maddie hoisted a large bazooka up onto her back and sprinted over to the location of the fight, trusting that Jack would be close enough behind her. As she rounded a corner, Phantom came crashing down a few meters in front of her, landing on his back before pushing himself back up.

Well, he tried. Instead, his left arm gave out from beneath him and he hissed. Maddie’s eyes darted over to see what could’ve been the reason, and she saw– she saw–

Danny’s cast.

Phantom was wearing Danny’s cast, complete with the constellations and the slightly wonky Big Dipper.

Danny– Danny Phantom– Danny Fenton–

Maddie sank to her knees.

#dannymay #dannymay2023 #danny phantom #danny fenton #maddie fenton #bones #casts #identity reveal #i swear jack was meant to have a bigger role #and jazz was going to show up #but maddie just forced her way in and said “no”

[scarletsaphire]

hello I am here to politely request more Gray Ghost

This is heavily based on the song In the Name Of Love by Martin Garrix and Bebe Rexha. Highly recommended great gray ghost vibes.

“Are you sure that dating is a good idea?” Valerie inhaled sharply through her nose at Danny’s words, immediately pushing down the sting of rejection. She doesn’t hide it very well, as Danny takes one look before he continues, panicked. “I don’t mean it like that! I just. Don’t know if its a good idea?”

“If you don’t like me, you can just say that,” she mumbles. She moves to turn away, but Danny grabs her wrist before she can.

“It’s not that! I do like you, and I would like to date you. I’m just worried that uh.” Danny’s face is beat red, and he lowers his voice until he’s mumbling as well. “I just don’t want something bad to happen.”

Valerie feels the sting of rejection fade slightly. “Like what?” she asks, slipping her wrist out of Danny’s grasp to properly hold her hand.

He looks down at it, face turning even redder. “I don’t know. I…” he trails off, looking towards the ground where he kicks at a loose piece of pavement. “I think you’re wonderful, and I don’t want to lose you.”

The last remnants of rejection turn to joy at his confession, and Valerie smiles softly at him, pulling him down to sit on the curb. “That’s why I’m asking you out, Danny. I think you’re wonderful too, and I like you a lot.”

He looks up at her so quickly she’s afraid he might have hurt his neck. “You do?”

She rolls her eyes. “Yea, I do. I’m pretty sure that’s a prerequisite to asking someone out on a date, you know?”

“Oh, right,” Danny says. He chuckles nervously, scratching at the back of his neck in the way he always does when he’s embarrassed. It’s adorable.

Valerie bites her lip and thinks over her next words carefully. “I don’t want to lose you either, you know. But I think we could really be good together, and if we don’t take that chance, we’ll be losing whatever we could have been. I’m willing to risk it, if you are.”

Danny meets her eyes, and she’s lost in the bright, deep blue, just like the last dozen times she’s seen them. He doesn’t answer for a minute, thinking so hard she can practically see the gears turning in his head. Finally, his face relaxes, and she gives her hand, which is still clasped in his slightly sweaty one, a gentle squeeze. “I think that I’d like that.”

—

“Are you busy tonight?” Danny asks, and Valerie jumps, hitting her hand against the locker door. “I’m sorry!” Danny says, grabbing it quickly and looking it over. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Valerie laughs. “Yea, yea, you never do.” She moves to take her hand away and finish emptying her locker, but Danny stops her. “Danny, I’m fine, you don’t need to worry about it.”

Danny smirks at her. He maintains eye contact with her as he brings her hand to his lips and gently kisses her knuckles. “There. Now you’re fine.” He lets her hand go.

Valerie flicks him in the arm. “Sap. I’m free tonight, after my shift. Why?”

“It’s supposed to be super clear then, and we should be able to see Venus without a telescope or anything. I was wondering if you’d like to go stargazing with me?”

“I think I should be able to,” she says slowly, thinking over her plans for the night. She was working until 9, and had told her father to expect her home around 11, for patrol. But she’d patrolled yesterday, and she so rarely found anything more troublesome than an ectopus. Surely, Phantom could handle Amity by himself for a few hours?

Danny smiled, bouncing so fast with excitement he might as well have been floating. “Great! I can meet you at the Nasty Burger after your shift and we can walk to the park?”

Valerie slammed her locker shut and lifted her backpack over her shoulder. “Actually, why don’t I pick you up? On the corner of Main and Jekyll?”

“Sounds good to me!” Danny agreed instantly. Then he paused in his bouncing. “But why?”

“You’ll see,” Valerie said. She hurried off down the hall, ignoring Danny’s shouted questions as she left his line of sight.

—

Valerie had her whole shift to worry about what she was planning on doing. She’d been thinking about telling Danny about her being Red Huntress for months now; there just never seemed to be a good time to do it. As nervous as she was about it, she was still certain this was the right time, if only because she needed to know what he looked like surrounded by the stars he loved so much.

Every customer in her ear piece, every load of french fries into the fryer, every tap of a key on the computer system, made her more and more jittery, both from stress and excitement. The second that the clock hit 9 Valerie was clocked out and changing out of her uniform at record speeds. She had scarcely made it behind the dumpster in the back before she was in her Red Huntress suit, soaring away on her hoverboard to the meeting place.

Sure enough, Danny stood in the dark, staring intently down the road in the direction of the Nasty Burger. Valerie floated down as gently as she could manage, getting to be a good seven feet off the ground before Danny turned to look at her. His face slackened in shock, his mouth falling open as he saw her.

She lifted back her visor and smiled at him. “What are you waiting for, Danny? Do you want to see the stars or not?” She held out her hand to him, and he took it without a second thought, stepping up on her hoverboard. He stood in front of her, with her arms wrapped around his torso to keep him secure. “I hope you’re not afraid of heights!” She called. Whatever his answer was, it was lost to the wind as they took to the skies.

Before long, the two of them found themselves floating high above the trees in Amity Park Park, sitting with their legs dangling off the side of the hoverboard and an endless expanse of night sky unbroken above them. Valerie drew her eyes away from the stars, turning them to Danny, and was surprised to see him looking at her in turn.

“Danny?” she asked, concerned. “Is something wrong?” Danny didn’t break her gaze, didn’t answer her question, just stared at her, thinking. “I know its a lot, and I’m sorry I never told you. I didn’t mean to go behind your back with all of this,” she said, panic settling in her chest. She should have thought this over more; of course he wouldn’t just accept this without a thought, she’s been keeping huge, life changing secrets from him!

“What if,” Danny said slowly. “I said this wasn’t the first time I’d been this high up?”

“What?” she asked, confused.

“Not in a plane or anything,” Danny continued. “But flying. Like this. What if I said it wasn’t my first time?”

“Well,” Valerie said, picking apart his words. They seemed so random, but they had to be leading somewhere. “I guess I’d ask when you were? And how?”

Danny hummed, and broke eye contact, looking up at the stars. “And if you didn’t like the answer?”

“I don’t understand,” Valerie said.

“What if I had the answer to that question, but it was one you hated? The type of answer that changed everything, that made you question everything you think you know?” Danny still didn’t look at her, sitting so still it didn’t even look like he was breathing. “Would you still want to know it?”

Valerie took a deep breath, the cold air stinging her nose, her lungs. “If it has to do with you, then yes. I want to know everything about you.”

Danny met her gaze that time, but what she saw was not the beautiful blue that she could get lost in for hours. Danny’s eyes were a burning, glowing green, so vibrant that they illuminated her hoverboard. “It’s not the first time I’ve been up this high. It’s not even the first time I’ve been up here with you.”

Valerie couldn’t have kept her eyes open even if she tried, as a flash of bright light emanated from Danny. She rubbed the spots out of her eyes, and then rubbed them again as she tried to figure out what she was seeing. Danny’s familiar figure had been replaced with a different figure, one just as familiar, if for very different reasons. The ghosts green eyes, the same green she had seen Danny with only moments prior, had once again drifted to the stars.

“What?” she asked, not able to speak over a whisper.

“There was an accident,” he said, and now that the answer had been placed in her lap she couldn’t help but recognize just how similar their voices were. Just how similar their everything was. “In freshman year. I died, but I didn’t do it right. I’m half ghost, and half human.”

This time it was Valerie who was slack jawed. Danny let her gather her thoughts. “I tried to end you.” The words were forced out, every syllable choked as if it hurt to say. In many ways, it did.

“I know you did. I’ve known its been you the whole time,” Danny said, and Valerie was left reeling again from that knowledge.

“But, why?” she asked finally. “If you knew it was me, why did you go out with me? Fuck, why did you try and be my friend?”

“I meant what I said. I think you’re wonderful, and you were trying to help,” Danny said. “It’s why I was worried it wouldn’t end well. I didn’t know what you would think about all of this.”

“I think,” Valerie said. It took effort to keep her voice even, but she managed. “I think that we’re both horrible at being honest.” Danny’s laughter echoed in the night, the haunting echo of a ghost. Normally that echoed chilled her, but it was still Danny’s laugh underneath it all. Danny’s laugh, which had never failed to lift her spirits. Now was not an exception. “No more secrets?” Valerie lifted her hand, pinky finger extended.

Danny looked over, and his smile wasn’t the one of glee he had worn earlier that day, but it was soft, and hopeful, and fit beautifully on his face. “No more secrets.” He looped his pinky finger around hers, locking their promise in place. His hands were ice cold. Valerie didn’t let go.

—-

Valerie didn’t bother trying to find the spare key for Fentonworks under the mat. Before she’d even started up the stairs she had an ectoblaster in her hand. By the time she made it to the top of the stairs the door handle was melted off, and she barreled in the house without breaking her momentum.

She careened through the house at top speed, slamming into walls instead of bothering to change course manually. She’d wasted too many seconds already; she couldn’t afford to be late.

She jumped down the steps to the basement, taking as many as she could at once without badly injuring herself. Even still her knees ached at the impact, but she didn’t slow down. She didn’t slow down until the Dr.’s Fenton came into view, each in their customary color coded jumpsuits, with additional surgery masks on their faces. “Stop!” she shouted, though it came out as more of a sob. “Don’t hurt him!”

Jack and Maddie shared a confused look. “Valerie, what are you doing here?” Maddie asked. Valerie didn’t answer, dashing between the two scientists to stand between them and Phantom, who was strapped to the table. “Valerie Gray, you get away from it! It’s dangerous!”

“He,” Valerie snarled. “is your son!” She didn’t bother looking at their confused faces, her full attention on Danny. He wasn’t hurt too badly, at least not for his standards. He was even still conscious, if only barely, his eyes rolled back in his head. “Danny, can you hear me?”

“Val?” he slurred, trying to turn his head towards her and failing.

“It’s me, Danny.” She fumbled at the mechanisms restraining him. “I’m gonna get you out of here, but I need you to go back to human. Can you do that for me?”

Danny squeezed his eyes the rest of the way shut as he focused. The start of his transformation rings appeared at his waist, but they sputtered out before anything could happen. “Can’t.”

Jack’s hand closed around Valerie’s wrist, firm yet gentle. “Valerie, you can’t be down here, its dangerous. I don’t know what you think it is, but its a ghost. They’re dangerous.”

“I know how dangerous ghosts can be,” she said, wrenching her arm free from Jack’s grip. “I’ve been fighting them with you for years.” She let her suit emerge, everything but the visor. “You know me, you know I’m a good ghost hunter. You’ve trusted me to help defend you in fights. So trust me now.” She pointed at Danny behind her. “That is your son, and you are hurting him. You need to let him go.”

Maddie and Jack stared at her, Jack’s shock clear on his face while Maddie had her eyes narrowed, assessing the situation. Finally, Maddie nodded her head, and moved towards the bed.

“If you’re wrong about this, we’ll be letting a dangerous creature back out into the world,” Maddie said as she worked to deactivate the restraints, Valerie hovering behind her. “But if you’re right, then we will never be able to live with ourselves.”

The restraints popped open, setting Danny free. This time, the rings didn’t petter out.

#danny phantom #danny phantom fanfiction #ask game #danny fenton #valerie grey #valerie gray #gray ghost #grey ghost #you get a whole ass fic i guess

[glucosegaurdian]

got myself an ectopus keychain.

It has little star and moon confetti!!

#ectoplasm #ghost blob #little ghost #danny fenton #dani phantom #ghost king danny #danny phantom #danny phantom fandom #space boi #dp au #dp fandom #danny phandom