How many halfas do you see? One, Two, …
After rescuing one and learning about another, Valerie wants to know more about these strange "half-ghosts". And who better to ask than the son of Amity Park's ghost experts? So long as he doesn't jump to the wrong conclusions.
A/N - This is one shot unrelated to my other stories. I'll update those when I get a chance.
Disclaimer and warning - I don't own these characters or any part of the Danny Phantom franchise. Also there is mild cursing in this one-shot.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
I jolted up, fighting off the surrounding covers, frantically searching for the source of that blaring god-awful noise. After a minute of struggling, my head finally escaped their Egyptian cotton confines and I slammed a fist down on the bright red alarm clock, muttering curse words that would have me grounded for a year. I stole a glance at the neon green numbers mocking me from the demon appliance that had dared to disturb my slumber. 8:30. Damn, I was going to be late for school again. I let out a groan and flopped back onto my bed. Maybe dad would let me take a sick day.
I grabbed my books out of my locker and resisted the urge to blast the tardy slip in my hand. Fifth one this month, which meant detention after school. Dad had refused to give me an out this morning despite all attempts at flattery, pouting, and even groveling. He says it's my own fault for being out late ghost hunting instead of sleeping and I have to learn to live with the consequences of my actions. Besides, he said, with the way my grades are starting to slip, missing school is definitely not an option. Ugh, I love my dad, but I really could have used a break today.
Last night's adventures involved more than just fighting off the Amity Park regulars. The trip across several states to the isolated Colorado mansion was bad enough, seeing as I was willingly following a ghost in order to save another ghost. The journey back I'd been alone, with only anger-fueled adrenaline preventing me from collapsing off my jet-sled from exhaustion. But it wasn't just the lack of sleep that was getting to me today. I've been doing this ghost hunting gig for several months now, but last night I finally had the ghost-kid in my clutches, primed for payback. Of course the fiend had to appeal to my human conscience to save that little ghost-girl Danielle. Well, half-ghost girl. From evil half-ghost Vlad. One night and my whole world turns topsy turvy. I don't even know who to trust anymore! And I don't understand this half-ghost thing. How is that even possible?
Suddenly a hand appeared in front of me, waving back and forth, startling me out of my reverie. "Uh, Earth to Valerie," a voice said, "you've been staring into your locker since before the warning bell rang. We're gonna be late!" Star started to yank me towards English and I quickly slammed my locker shut as I'm dragged behind my friend.
Is it still English class?! I feel like I've been sitting here for hours instead of forty minutes. That means we've got thirty-five minutes to go. Great. Lancer's lecturing on Byron or Beowulf or something, but no one except for Mikey is paying any attention. Paulina's doing her nails, Dash and Kwan are playing paper football and Danny keeps shooting me weird looks. I surreptitiously pat down my hair, worried that there's still Cheerios in it or something from my rushed breakfast earlier. Not finding anything, I shoot him a glare back and he winces and returns to face the front, his eyes quickly glazing over as Lancer drones on. I continue my glare for a minute more, just for good measure, then pick up my pencil to take notes. Well, pretend to take notes. My mind is far away from medieval poetry. In my head I keep replaying the events of last night. Seeing that girl turn into a ghost. Seeing Plasmius turn into Masters. Catching Phantom, letting him go. That perfect cocktail of confusion, betrayal, anger, and frustration threatens to overwhelm me again. This cocktail's more of the molotov rather than martini variety, but I can't let myself break-down here in the middle of class. So I take a deep breath, and another, and blink back the emotional tears that have begun to accumulate in the corner of my eyes despite my best wishes. When I've banished the tears and feel confident that my face isn't too flushed and lift my head and turn a confident gaze onto the portund professor. Half of class is left, maybe I'll learn something.
"Oh. My. God. I'm pretty sure that was the most boring lecture Lancer has ever given," Star moaned as we strolled towards the cafeteria, finally free of that stuffy classroom. She was right, it had been unbearable, even after I tried to pay attention. "Uh, and what was with Fenton giving you those looks?" Star continued. She abruptly stopped, turned and tilted her head, giving me a searching look. "Is there something going on with you two again? I thought you dumped that loser?"
"What! I mean I did notice him staring, I just thought I had something my hair or teeth, you know."
"Hmm, well, we'll just chalk it up to him being naturally weird. Look who his parents are after all," Star rolled her eyes and starting walking again, "Ghost crazy and trigger happy."
Just like me, I thought, then cringed at the mere thought of being like the Fentons. Like I'd told Phantom last night, they couldn't catch a ghost if it was living in their own house. I however, was an expert, I was the one who had caught Phantom. Of course, I was also the one who'd let him go. And the one who didn't know about half-ghosts. Okay, so I really didn't know all that much about ghosts in general. I grinned as a plan started to form in my mind. Although the Fentons might not be good at catching ectoplasmic scum, they had been studying the green goopy ghouls before she even believed they existed. Heck, they'd probably been researching the things before she was even born! If I could ask them about -
"Valerie!" I jumped at the sound of my name. Star was already at the cafeteria door, tapping her foot impatiently. I hadn't realized that I had been standing in the middle of the hallway while letting my brain meander off again. Great, I probably looked demented just standing there grinning to myself. I felt my cheeks heat up as I scurried to where Star was waiting.
"Spacey much today?" She whispered as we walked towards the pizza line.
"Sorry," I mumbled in reply, "just, tired." She nodded and didn't push the issue. After we made it through the line, Star headed towards the A-list table. I moved to follow her, then paused and looked around.
There, at the table in the corner as usual, sat Fenton, Foaly, and Manson. I swear those three were inseparable. Too bad they were going to have to be separated today. Well, for like five minutes, not forever.
Making up my mind, I marched over to the trio's table. Sam saw me first and her eyes went wide as she started poking Danny. Danny shifted in his seat and jumped a bit at my approach. He looked afraid, like I was going to eat him or something. Hmm, maybe I was stomping a bit too much. Upon reaching their table, I turned to the raven-haired boy, "Danny, I need to talk to you about something."
"Now?" He squeaked, cowering a little. I suppressed a giggle at the obvious signs of puberty in his voice.
"Yeah, actually. It's been bugging me all day and I kinda think you could explain some things. Ghost things," I emphasized, hoping he'd understand why it had to be him and no one else. If anyone at school was privy to the kind of knowledge about ghosts that Jack and Maddie Fenton claimed to possess, it would be their children. Since I'm not really friends with Jazz, it would have to be Danny.
At my words he paled and started to get up. Geez, he looked like he was going to be sick. If he hated talking about ghosts this much, maybe I should just talk to his parents instead. However, that would mean several more hours of my mind spinning and spinning with no more understand. So I decided to a little selfish and ignored his obvious discomfort.
Tucker, however, did notice his friend's change in demeanor. "Dude, you want us to come with?" Danny sighed.
"No, but thanks. I'll be fine." He muttered something else I didn't quite catch. Sam meanwhile was shooting daggers at me with her eyes, as if I had just killed and eaten a cat in front of her. Talk about over protective. I just wanted to ask him some questions, not kiss him or anything. I was way over that crush.
"Don't worry Sam, I'll bring him back in one piece," I joked, hoping to loosen the tension.
"You'd better. Or else." she growled, tightening those tension knots even more snug.
"I'll be fine, Sam," Danny insisted, though his countenance belied the fact that he really did seem scared. He jabbed a thumb towards the outside doors, turned on his heel and headed out. I followed.
He lead me to one of the trees at the far edge of the school boundaries, before he finally stopped and turned to face me. "Alright Val. You said you wanted to talk to me about ghosts?"
"Yeah I -" I paused. I had to be careful about this. I didn't want to reveal myself as the Red Hunter to Danny, but I needed answers. I'd have to do this carefully. Oh to hell with it. Danny was clueless anyways as indicated by his lack of a relationship with one Sam Manson.
"It's about half-ghosts." He just nodded, an invitation to continue. "Well, I met one last night. I thought she was evil, but really, she was just an ordinary girl, you know. Except that she was also a ghost."
"Val -"
I continued speaking, ignoring the interruption. All these thoughts had been building up since this morning and I had flung open the floodgates. There was no stopping my wordy deluge. "And that's fine because I could tell she wasn't out to hurt anyone even though that's what I thought at first. But then it turns out there was a second half-ghost." "Only I'm way more confused because I knew the guy personally, as a human, and I liked him, I trusted him and then I find out he's this evil fiend of ghost and that he's been deceiving me this whole time and I just don't understand how someone could be a ghost and a person and how someone could be that mean!" I gasped for air between the sobs. By this point the deluge of words had turned into a deluge of tears and I shuddered and gasped for air between sobs. My fingers hurriedly swiped at my eyes as I tried to compose myself. I had just wanted to ask him about half-ghosts, not break down and succumb to my deeper insecurities about last night. I don't think I even realized just how much Vlad's deception tore at my soul.
C'mon Valerie, get it together. I scolded myself you're stronger than this, suck it up!
I swallowed and took another shuddering breath, then chanced a glance at Danny. I didn't think Danny could get any paler, but boy was I wrong. And he looked positively devastated at my story, though I'm not sure why.
"Val," he whispered, "Valerie, I'm so sorry." I just nodded, not trusting myself to speak yet without bursting into tears again. Damn emotions plus lack of sleep. I was losing my edge.
"I promise I'm not evil," he insisted. I furrowed my brow. What was he talking about?
"But -"
"No, hear me out Val, please." I just nodded again, not sure where he was going with this, but grateful for the chance to get a grip on my emotionally overloaded system. Taking my silence as cue, he continued speaking, his words frantic and pleading. "I'm not evil, and I never meant to hurt you, physically or emotionally. I promise it wasn't my dog, he just wanted his squeaky toy and it was under Axion, and I'm so sorry about your dad losing his job, but I swear it wasn't on purpose. And I didn't steal the flour sack, since it was our project after all, and I only destroyed your other suit because I knew you weren't in it and I didn't mean to blast you when we were out in space. I just, I know you hate me because I didn't tell you the truth, but it was kind of hard when you were out to kill me the whole time, okay. But I'm sorry. I really am. And I promise I'm not evil."
Danny finished his spiel and looked at me, gauging my response, He was waiting for a reply, for forgiveness for something I didn't know he'd done. I could only blink back at him as my mind tried to process the word vomit he'd just spewed on me. Dammit, talking to Danny was supposed to make me less confused, not more confused! Alright, Val. Step back and let's sort through this.
Danny was claiming not to be evil, but I'd never said he was. So why was he so insistent? And what did it have to do with half-ghosts? All that stuff, it was stuff Phantom had done, not Vlad, not Danny. And he was trying to make amends? Why? And how did he know all that anyways? Like the suit… he knew! Oh god, Danny knew about her suit! But no one knew besides Dad, right? Well, Vlad and Phantom knew too, I suppose. Yep, Vlad effing Plasmius and Danny effing Phantom. Two ghosts, no, one and half ghosts, who for some reason have made it their afterlife obsession ruin my present life. And Danny Fenton has the gall to apologize for everything Danny Phantom had done as if he was -
No way.
Fenton was apologizing as if he was Phantom. Could the charming, clumsy, sweet human boy in front of me really be a ghost? And not just any ghost, but the ghost I've hated and hunted for a year now? The Fenton's couldn't catch a ghost if it was living under their own roof. Could there be more truth to that statement than I'd realized? I didn't think it was possible to screw with my sense of normalcy more that last night's revelations had, but this…
The scene in front of me started to blur and I brought my hand up to my head to steady myself and keep from fainting. I stepped back and Danny hurried forward as if to grab me.
"No!" I shouted, bringing my other arm up quickly. Danny stopped and stared cross-eyed at the muzzle of my bracelet turned ecto-gun now mere inches from his face.
"I-I need to think!" I yelled again, keeping my gun trained on him. Only, the thoughts had suddenly ceased coming. Everything in my head was such a mess right now that I couldn't make heads or tails of all the new information. The emotional part of my brain was having a conniption, but the rational part was trying to calm me down. Start at the beginning, rational me suggested.
"The ghost dog." I stated.
Not taking his eyes off the gun, Danny groaned, "I've told you a dozen times, he wasn't my dog."
Phantom had said that a dozen times. I'd never listened to his lies of course. But hearing the words out of Danny's mouth made it much easier to believe. Was this a trick? Maybe Phantom had overshadowed Danny. I needed to ask him something only Fenton would know.
"After the flour sack, you did something nice for me," I prompted.
"You mean the Nasty Ned costume? Valerie, we're friends, I was a jerk that week, and you had just been hunted through the ghost zone. Of course I did that for you."
My stomach dropped. He knew about the suit and he knew about that horrible month I was Nasty Ned. Only Fenton and my dad knew about that job. Did Phantom know? If Fenton and Phantom had been the same the whole time, then,
"And when we dated?"
"Huh?" He was thrown off. Gotcha ghost kid! I cocked an eyebrow at him. "When we dated. What was that? A trick?"
"What! No! I really liked you Val, I was even going to ask you to go steady before you broke up with me."
"Go steady? What is this 1950?" I rolled my eyes. Then it hit me. I'd broken up with Danny so I could focus on ghost fighting, and so the ghosts, particularly Phantom, wouldn't hurt Fenton. But if Fenton really was him, then the whole thing was -
"Pretty ironic, huh." Danny had sidestepped my gun and was giving me that characteristic Danny smile. The very same one that had almost melted my heart a few months ago. It was enough to take the fight out of me. I lowered my weapon and it retracted back into a simple, inconspicuous bracelet.
We continued to stand there, just staring at eachother. After a minute I broke the silence. "So you're a…" I let the sentence fail, not quite willing to say the word "ghost." He finished my sentence for me.
"A half-ghost, yeah. It's weird, but pretty cool too." That sweet cheeky grin was still plastered on his face. "I bet it was a bit of a shock to see him, uh me, turn into well me," he gestured at his body, "last night when I passed out," he said with a small chuckle.
I cocked my head and gave him a puzzled look. "But I didn't. There was Danielle and after Phantom left, I went back to check on Masters. I saw him turn into Plasmius."
The smirk instantly vanished from his face and he paled again. "What! You mean you didn't see me transform?" He was back to being frantic, scrambling to understand. "But, you let me go, you didn't' recapture me last night! And with the bookcase, I figured you knew!"
I ignored the bookcase comment and focused on the lack of recapture. "Danielle asked me to let Phantom go. I figured I owed her one. That's the only reason I didn't kick his, your, butt halfway to the ghost zone."
"So-so the evil half-ghost you mentioned-"
"Was Vlad."
"Oh." His eyes widened, "So you know about Vlad? Please tell me he doesn't know that you know!"
"And give away my trump card? Yeah right."
"Well, why did you want to talk to me then?"
I sighed, "Look Danny, I haven't had much sleep and I'm still processing this whole 'existence of half-ghosts.' That's what I wanted to talk to you about."
"Why me?" he asked.
I shrugged. "You're parents are ghosts experts, so I thought you might know some stuff about them too, I'd hoped you could tell me more about half-ghosts. Never thought you'd actually be one. Just how many human-ghost freaks are there out there anyways?"
He bristled at my choice of words, "just the three, I -." The bell rang in the distance cutting him off mid-sentence. "I guess we'll have to talk after school. I suppose we both can't afford any more tardies." I watched as he started back towards the giant grey building, still rooted to the spot. Realizing that I wasn't following, he turned back. "Valerie, are you going to be okay?"
No, I wasn't sure I was going to be okay. This whole half-ghost thing was still majorly messing with me head. What are the chances that in a 24-hour period I would come across not one, not two, but three freakin' half-ghosts? But the kid was right. Dad would have my hide if I played truant today.
"Fine. Elmers 5pm? You'll explain everything?" He glanced apprehensively at my bracelet. "No weapons?" I grinned, "I'll leave mine when you leave yours," I gestured towards his hands. I continued before he argued back, "but I promise not to shoot first. This time."
"You won't spill my secret either?" he pleaded. "I won't if you won't," I retorted.
He smiled once more that damn cute smile and held out his hand. "Deal." We shook as the warning bell rang in the distance.
"Race ya to class hunter girl?"
"You're on, ghost boy!"
Thanks for reading!