Scarred Hero
Warnings: Characters are around 23 years old. More of a friendship than romantic pairing between Dash and Danny. Drinking. Implied extreme violence and/or possible murder.
Disclaimer: Danny Phantom is a product of Nickelodeon. All characters in this story are imaginary.
Summary: Dash finds Danny again after several years and sees that not all heroes are without scars.
Note: This was written as short responses to several different themes.
Originally Written: January 2006
Charred Scars
When Dash found him, Danny sat alone in a bar, beer bottles and shot glasses covering his small round table. Dash wondered if they were from just that night or had accumulated over many nights. He grabbed a chair, dragging it over to the table before plopping down on it.
"What do you want?" Danny demanded angrily in a slurred voice.
Dash stared at the man, trying to decipher the drunken speech. "Manson and Foley told me you frequent this place."
"Them big mouths," Danny grumbled as he leaned on the table, knocking bottles and glasses to the floor. They shattered upon impact with the cold cement floor. "Didn't answer question."
"I want to know why you're being stupid." Dash didn't care if they made a scene with their conversation. The bar was empty, save for the one bartender, an old man with a hearing problem.
"Not stupid!" Danny growled. He attempted to make a swing at the blond man, but Dash caught his arm and pinned it to the table. Danny winced.
"You should be out fighting ghosts, not sitting drunk in a bar," Dash whispered heatedly. The comment seemed to sober Danny, who gazed at Dash in fear and confusion. "I'm not as dense as you believe me to be. Ghosts are tormenting people left and right. Your parents can't handle them all. The town needs you."
"The town would sooner burn me at the stake like a witch," Danny growled. He freed his hand from Dash's hold to tear open his white collared shirt, revealing his battle wounds. Scars ran in every direction across his torso, and a burn ran from his collar bone down to his belly button. The scars in the burn area were blackened and some looked infected. "This is the reward I received for protecting those people."
"Dan – I – Who did that to you?" Dash asked, faltering in his purpose. He never imagined anyone would be so cruel to Danny; even he never went so far as to cause such horrible wounds.
"My parents when they almost caught me," Danny replied, looking away to hide the tears threatening to spill from his eyes. Dash hung his head, understanding now Danny's decision to end his double life as Danny Phantom as well as Tucker and Sam's attempts to persuade him to give up hope on returning Danny Phantom to Amity Park. Danny was only human, and some scars ran too deep, even for heroes.
A Dark Redemption
Dash entered the bar, a nightly habit of his since he first sought out Danny Fenton. He spent his nights sitting with the drunken man. On occasion, they talked, but more often they just sat and drank together. Once a week, he would make an attempt to convince Danny to fight the ghosts again as Danny Phantom, but it always ended in failure and sometimes arguments.
When he didn't find Danny in the bar, Dash was very confused. His bewilderment turned to shock when he met with Sam and Tucker, both glaring at him.
"What did you do to Danny?" Sam demanded, stepping forward, and Tucker grabbed her arm to hold her back.
"What are you talking about?" Dash asked, his confusion returning.
"We told you not to bother with Danny, and now he's gone insane," Tucker said. "What did you say to him?"
"Again, I have no idea what you're talking about," Dash replied grumpily. "Where is Fenton anyway?"
"Who knows? Out tormenting people again?" Sam snapped, folding her arms over her chest as her eyes narrowed at the blond man.
"Tormenting? Fenton wouldn't torment people." Dash frowned at the woman.
"He does now, apparently," Tucker said sadly. "We just came from his parents' house, and they had been…" he trailed off, unable to describe the scene they came across inside Fenton Works.
Dash didn't care for further explanation. He ran from the bar in search of Danny. Hours later, he found the white haired ghost. They stood a block away from each other, staring into the other's eyes. Danny walked forward, and Dash's eyes narrowed as his body tense in fear of attack.
"And here is the man I owe my thanks to," Danny said, smirking and standing within an arm's length of the blond man.
"Thanking me?" Dash asked as his brow rose. "Why? And why did you attack your parents?"
"Thanking you for making me realize my folly," Danny explained. "You saved me from the hopeless sorrow I felt. Why should I wallow in such pain and suffering when I have the power to inflict it tenfold on those that inflicted it upon me?"
"So you tortured your parents because of what they did to you?" Dash demanded. "They're your parents! Have you lost your humanity?"
The smirk fell from Danny's face, and he closed the distance between them. "I'm their son, and you saw what they did to me. Why shouldn't I pay them back for that?"
"Because you should be above that," Dash answered, feeling betrayed by a hero he had admired for many years.
Blood Rain
Dash stared at the figure standing before him. Blood rained down on them, dying the snow white hair red. Danny smirked when he caught sight of Dash. Sometime over the weeks, his left eye bled to crimson while his right eye remained green.
"We seem to have a habit of running into each other," Danny said, licking the blood from his lips.
"More like you're stalking me," Dash grumbled, not understanding Danny's motives for these encounters. "Does it make you happy to see the people of Amity Park die at the hands of those ghosts?" he asked in a louder voice.
Danny shrugged. "I don't really care one way or another." He walked over to Dash. "My life is finally my own. All I care about is myself now."
Dash scowled at the statement. "Manson and Foley left town. They said they've given up all hope in you."
"And you still believe you can return Danny Phantom, the optimistic idealist, to the world?" Danny chuckled as he shook his head, the action sending a few beads of blood from the strands of his hair.
"I have faith that the real Fenton is still in there somewhere."
Danny tilted his head, searching Dash's eyes. "You must have some reason for clinging to that hope so much," he said as he closed the distance between them. "You can't tell me that you actually had some sort of feelings for me."
"That you'll probably never know," Dash answered as he stepped around Danny to continue on his way home. Danny watched the man leave. He frowned, finding he had a new battle raging within him.
All in Perspective
Dash opened his front door and sighed when he saw the familiar white haired ghost sitting on his doorstep. He stepped outside as the light slowly died from the sky.
"Why are you still here?" Danny asked, keeping his eyes focused on some far off point. "This town is virtually a wasteland. All the sane people left months ago."
"I guess I'm not sane then." Dash dropped the bag of trash on the ground as he sat beside Danny. "Why do you continue to seek me out?" He noticed Danny tense at the question. "Maybe I'm just analyzing the heck out of this, but I think you're hoping I can bring back the old you, and that's why you keep coming to me."
"You sound like Jazz," Danny groaned, obviously trying to avoid the real issue.
"She did tutor me." Dash recalled the many late nights visiting the woman in her room after hours.
"The old me is dead." Danny growled. "You should give up. My life is my own, and I'll live it however I want."
"You tell yourself that a lot, don't you?" Dash caught Danny's flinch. "You know, Jazz told me some time ago that at one time in your future you turned evil. She said you promised your parents never to be that way again. You broke that promise."
Danny stood and towered over the sitting man. "I made that promise to parents that I thought loved me, but in their eyes, I'm just another ghost." He balled his hands into fists, and they glowed red with flickers of green. "The promise was broken when they turned against me."
"Didn't you also make that promise to Jazz, Manson, and Foley?" Dash asked, not feeling threatened in any way by Danny. "What did they do to break the promise?"
Danny's rage seemed to falter. "They - That's beside the point!" he shouted. "I don't have to listen to you and this screwed up logic."
"True." Dash nodded. "My perspective shouldn't mean anything to you, though it's funny that you continue to stay here and listen to me. Maybe a part of you has realized that it's your perspective that is messed up. After all, you're just a made up persona to protect Fenton from facing what's making him suffer."
Danny's eye twitched. "The Danny you want no longer exists!" he shouted while the green flickers appeared more often in the red glow around his fists.
"You keep having to reaffirm that fact. Are you afraid that if you don't, you'll cease to exist?" Dash asked with a curious expression.
"You are infuriating to speak to!" Danny growled before vanishing in a wisp of red and green.
"Yet you'll be back again to speak to me again," Dash whispered, resting his chin in his hand as he stared at the night sky.
Waiting for the Sun
"What are you doing?" Danny asked, appearing at Dash's side many months later.
"Waiting for the sun to rise again." Dash sat on the steps of his house and stared at the horizon.
"Is that supposed to be some sort of metaphor?" Danny snorted.
"No," Dash replied, "I'm literally sitting here to see the sun rise." He didn't tear his gaze away from the horizon when Danny flopped down on the steps beside him.
"Why? That sounds as boring and pointless as watching paint dry and grass grow." Danny dropped his chin into his hands as he stared at the horizon, trying to find Dash's reason for wanting to see the sun rise.
"A sunrise is beautiful," Dash replied. "Have you ever watched one before? But you know what I really like about sunrises?"
"No, I've always been asleep when the sunrises," Danny grumbled. "How could I ever know what you see in them?"
"The sun always rises," Dash said, ignoring Danny's grumbles. "No matter how dark the night is, the sun will always shine its light upon the world."
"So it was a metaphor after all," Danny snapped as he gave Dash a kick. However, the blond man moved aside quickly to avoid the attack.
"It's only a metaphor if you see it that way," Dash explained. "So why do you see it as one?"
"Who said I thought it was a metaphor?" Danny demanded angrily.
"I don't see it as one, and you jumped on the idea of it being one." Dash tore his gaze from the horizon and stared at Danny. "You returned."
Danny jerked at the statement and glanced at Dash. "I re – I do as I wish." He turned away with a huff.
"No matter how dark your life may seem, a light will shine again," Dash murmured, gazing into the distance again as the first rays of light broke over the horizon. "I know you want to become the old Fenton again. You're just scared."
"Scared?" Danny demanded in outrage. "What do I have to be scared of?"
"That you'll be scarred again by the people you thought would never turn against you, the people you thought cared for you and loved you."
"I don't know why I bother talking to you," Danny muttered, watching as the sun rose in the distance. "And when did you stop sounding stupid?"
"I was never stupid," Dash grumbled, forcing back a pout. "I just never let people know how smart I am."
"Some people would question your intelligence for staying here," Danny told him.
"I believe the sun will rise again," Dash said before falling silent.
Better Days
Dash stared at Danny, who glared right back. Even as a ghost, Danny still bruised as badly as in his human form. He had a black eye, swollen shut, and a busted lip with a small trail of blood dripping down his chin. Dash assumed that he looked just as bad.
"Face it," Dash said as he sighed. "We've had better days than this."
"In your opinion," Danny muttered. "I'm so sick of your psycho-babble." His fist clenched, ready for action, but neither of them had the strength left to continue with the fight.
"I'm not forcing you to come here," Dash reminded him. He lost count of how many times he repeated himself on a daily basis. "We're just going in circles now."
"Maybe you should stop analyzing me," Danny snapped angrily.
"Maybe you should actually listen to me," Dash returned, and they continued the glaring match.
"What does it matter? The ghosts got bored and returned to the Ghost Zone," Danny mumbled, angry at the ghosts, though deep down he knew that anger was misplaced.
"You think because of that you no longer have any reason to return to the old you?" Dash frowned.
"I don't want to be the old me." Danny's voice was soft as he turned his gaze away. "I don't want to return to that suffering. I can't go through that pain again."
"You don't have to," Dash said, causing Danny to snap his head around again. "You can be the old Fenton without reliving the pain. You'll never forget it, that much is obvious, but it doesn't mean you can hide from it. Right now, you're just letting the pain fester. That's not good. You need to grieve in order to move on."
Danny stared at Dash, still amazed by how much the man had grown since their years in high school. At first, he didn't realize it, but after a moment, he felt a warm liquid running down his cheeks. He touched a hand to his face, surprised by the tears. Dash crawled across the room and leaned against the wall beside Danny.
"In time, things will be okay again," Dash whispered as Danny turned to him and buried his face into the man's broad chest. Dash held Danny close, running a hand through white locks that slowly turned back to black.