Halves

By Chrissienah


Disclaimer: Danny Phantom & all its glory belongs to Butch Hartman, and all things from the realm of Percy Jackson belongs to Rick Riordan. Anything else that rings a bell also belongs to their rightful owners!


A dark figure stepped out of the shadows and onto the football field of Amity Park's Casper High. Dark matter curled around his form, beckoning him back to the abyss. He heard the laughter of students steadily growing louder, his mouth splitting into a malicious grin. It was time for the ghost king to find a certain halfa.

He relented, allowing the shadows to pull him beneath the shade. He travelled through the darkness, his mind barely acknowledging the objects above him as he entered the shadows of Casper High. Students shivered as his presence jumped from shadow to shadow, quickly making his way to the cafeteria, resting a table away from where one Danny Fenton sat.

He watched as the boy, well into his junior year, sat at his regular table with two other students. His companions had their attention solely devoted to their lunches, but Danny simply twirled his spaghetti onto his fork and back again.

"You know, sometimes I wish somebody knew what it was like to be only half human." The young man said, icy blue eyes staring down his pasta.

The other two sitting at the table exchanged glances. They had gone through this conversation, different versions of it, several times. Danny, being the hero everybody knew he was, usually kept his inner conflicts with himself to spare his friends the grief. Now and then, however, his shields would falter and as his friends, they were more than willing to help. So, in the instance that their eyes met, Sam and Tucker knew it was time to console their friend.

"Well, Danny, there's Vl-" Tucker piped, expecting to be cut off.

"Not Vlad. He isn't even on this planet anymore. And not Dani either!" He added the instant Sam opened her mouth to speak. "She was born knowing she was half ghost. It's not the same."

The conversation continued, with less than excellent results. Sam had brought up Greek legends, where half human offspring of gods were not uncommon.

"I gotta admit, that's cool, but still, they weren't real, and therefore, I am still alienated," Danny insisted, a twinge of pride in his finishing sentence for using a word that his English teacher had explained two days ago.

The shadows chuckled. Hasn't that wishing ghost taught you anything? Be careful what you wish for...He mused as he slithered to the shadows of Danny's table.

The teenage boy froze in the middle of his spaghetti twirling, panic and confusion clearly written across on his face. A few seconds passed before he was popping his lips in confusion. The inhabitants of the cafeteria paid him no attention - Danny Fenton was weird for more reasons than one. Still, the girl sitting next to him looked at him worriedly.

"Danny? What's wrong? Did you swallow your fork again?" Sam chided, concealing her worry with humour.

Danny shot a grateful glance at her, a ghost of a smile on his lips. His anxiousness was not extinguished, but it had mellowed with his girlfriend's words. The feeling of frost creeping up his throat brought the anxiety back, but it faded away as quickly as it came. The goth girl placed her hand gently on his shoulder, snapping him back into awareness. His blue eyes met her violet ones, a question clearly held within them. What's wrong?

"Nothing much, it's just weird..." he mumbled. "I have this feeling like my ghost sense is about to go off, but... it's not, for some reason."

"Hey, be happy about that! That means no ghost bashing during lunch!"

"Tucker," he sighed. "Don't-" A series of blue wisps escaped from his mouth. "...jinx it."

Expectant stares from the rest of the cafeteria bore into Danny, waiting for the halfa to transform.

Well, he thought as a bright flash of light swallowed him, transforming him into Amity Park's -and recently, the world's- favourite ghost hero. At least I don't have to find a place to hide anymore, now that everybody knows my secret.

After the Disasteroid incident, Danny had achieved international stardom. But he had insisted on carrying on with life as it was before he revealed his ghostly half, and soon his life was deemed "too plain" to be followed around by paparazzi. Now and then tourists who were brave enough to visit the most haunted city in North America stopped Danny on the streets for a picture or autograph. Other than that, Danny's fame had simmered to the equivalent of a humourous YouTube video.

Danny floated several feet off the floor, brilliant green eyes sweeping the room for ghosts. Sam and Tucker surveyed the area from the ground, each skillfully wielding a Fenton invention.

Hoards of ghosts barreled into the cafeteria from the ceiling, causing the rest of its inhabitants to race to the nearest exits as they realized this wasn't a routine ghost attack, as odd as that sounded. The cafeteria was empty within seconds, save for two and a half humans and a crowd of ghosts. The ghost in charge, fully armoured in metal, wasted no time in grabbing Danny by the collar.

"Skulker, what do you and the ghosts want?" Danny groaned.

"For once, whelp, it isn't you!" The ghost bellowed, bringing his face closer to the ghost-human hybrid. "Where is the ghost king?"

"Pariah Dark is back?" The halfa stammered, his face turning several shades paler.

Several ghosts groaned, including the one that held Danny in an iron fisted grip. Danny found himself being hurled at a wall for his statement, regaining his bearings inches from the cafeteria wall.

"No, dipstick. The new ghost king," A ghost with flaming blue hair said, her voice dripping with discontent. "We want to meet him. Word around the ghost zone's that he's wayworse than Pariah Dark."

"Well, I haven't seen anybody raging through the town and trying to take over the world lately..." Danny said, crossing his arms. "What makes him so powerful?"

Danny regretted his question almost immediately as the cafeteria erupted with the sound of several unhappy ghosts.

"He can controlthe ghosts!"

"He's got a sword made of stygian iron!"

"I heard he can summon an army of ghosts!"

"Guys!" Danny shouted over the frenzy of ghosts retelling their encounters with the ghost king. "I still don't get it. Freakshow could control ghosts, you've all got crazy weapons, and quite a few of you have armies of your own..."

"You haven't heard the worst of it. He's human."

Even Danny, who usually sided with his human half, was shocked. Though he preferred for it not to exist, role of ghost king spoke for itself.

"What? Who allowed a human to claim the title of ghost king?" Danny said, baffled. He was about to say more when the feeling of ice being trapped in his throat intensified. He instantly began sweeping the room again, searching for the cause. His eyes rested on the cafeteria table he was sitting at a few moments ago.

"You did, Danny Phantom," The voice of a young boy literally stepping out of the shadows called. "The name's Nico di Angelo, and I'm only half human."


A/N: This is my first fic! (I'm also fairly new to FFn), and I also haven't read the PJatO series in a while, so my sincerest apologies if some of the characters don't seem like themselves! I can't say I'll be a consistent updater, as updates will be sporadic at best, but I'll try my best to finish this fic!

-Chrissienah