Basically, the Guys In White sucked at their jobs. It was only supposed to be a retrieval mission - weaken the ghost, capture the ghost, detain the ghost, and then bring the ghost back to headquarters for experimentation. But due to a stifling lack of competence, things didn't go exactly as planned. They had cornered Phantom in an alley, backed it up against the wall of the Nasty Burger. It's neon eyes were darting between the four agents that had it trapped. The stench of its ectoplasm tainted the air from where it was bleeding out of its side.

And then, Agent X4 - the dumbass intern - pulled out the prototype machete. Agents Q1 and E2 regarded him with skepticism but allowed him to proceed as his saw fit. Just hours earlier, he had been whining about getting 'his chance' to prove himself. Might as well let the newbie wear himself out while they could take all the credit, right?

"We've got you now, ghost," Agent X4 spat. Phantom flinched but seemed to strengthen underneath the man's scrutiny.

"You sure about that? One on four is a little unfair guys, don't you think?" It leaned its head back against the grimy restaurant, chuckling nervously. "C'mon, shouldn't we settle this equally?"

"Silence," Agent X4 hissed. He pressed the machete against the specimen's neck.

It regarded the blade below his head and rolled its eyes, "A machete? You know that a knife can't really do anything when it comes to intangibility."

Agent X4 grinned, pressing the machete tighter against its throat, "I'm warning you, ghost."

"Good one, yeah."

They'd been trailing him all day, but Danny still had a little bit of energy left. Focusing on that tiny spark within his core, he turned intangible. They had him backed up against a wall, but if he could phase into the Nasty Burger… in their panic, he might be able to buy enough time to change back to human.

He propelled himself backward, getting a glimpse of the bottom of a gum-covered booth. But that sight was stolen from him when two pairs of hands gripped his legs and pulled him back into the alley. How had they touched him when he was intangible-?

Right, they had new Anti-Intangibility gloves. They had the same schematics as his dad's ghost gauntlets but were more compact. Just his lucky day.

Danny fought against the agents' pull, trying to kick them off, but they had a solid grip on him. They really had captured him, he couldn't even slip into the Nasty Burger.

"Good thinking, J3-"

"He's still fighting, pull harder-"

"Let go-!" Danny frantically tried to find enough power for an ectoblast, but he was all burnt out. This wasn't happening.

The fourth agent joined the two that were pulling on his feet. The additional force overwhelmed him and he fell forward like a rag doll, directly into Agent X4's machete.

…

White hot pain grazed his throat, and he could feel as the blade pierced through his flesh, tearing and snapping vital parts of his throat. Danny was used to pain (of bruises and burns and electrocutions and slices-), but this pain was… disorienting. He could feel his head separate from his shoulders, leaving only a numb impression that something was wrong. Of course, he knew that what had happened was very wrong but… what was it again?

…

White boots. They ignored his head, moving closer to examine something a few feet away. What… is… this perspective? Hot pain, liquid seeping out of his neck. Was his neck open? He should probably close it if that's the case….

"-decapitated the specimen-"

"-hell were you doing-"

Ow. Why did those goons have to talk so damn loud? Were the Dicks In White still looking for him? What a fucking pain. Invisibility it is then since I can't do much else.

"-you three carry its body into the van. I'll get its head …... where's it's goddamn he-"

Before Danny passed out, he heard the agent command his underlings to search for his head. Unable to find it, they drove away in the van. Good, stay the hell away from me. Let me sleep.

Valerie usually welcomed the task of taking the trash out behind the Nasty Burger. She was desperate for even a few seconds out of this stupid grease trap, even if it meant she had to lug gross bags of food scraps to a dumpster for some fresh air. When she took out the trash today, however, she was met with about four retreating GIW agents loading a black bag into one of their signature white vans.

Totally not suspicious at all.

They had already made it to the next traffic light by the time she disposed of the trash in the dumpster. Honestly, she was a bit curious but decided not to dwell on it much. She'd drive herself crazy with theories if she thought too hard about it.

Not wanting to go directly back to her job, Valerie figured she could at least use the GIW as an excuse why taking out the trash took so long. She slid down against the side of the Nasty Burger, pulled her knees to her chest, and let out a stress-relieving breath. This week had been hard, she needed a break.

She unconsciously let her hand rest on the ground beside her and recoiled when she met something wet. She looked at where she had just laid her hand and saw nothing on the ground but the usual grime. Bewildered, Valerie examined her hand and saw - ectoplasm. The green, slimy substance inexplicably stained her hands. Where had it come from? It didn't look like there was anything in the alley, so how was there ectoplasm of all things here?

Wait.

It didn't look like there was anything here. But if there was a ghost….

With a certain degree of caution, Valerie slowly started waving her hand around the area where she had felt the ectoplasm on the ground. It wasn't the brightest idea she had, but she figured if the ghost was bleeding ectoplasm, it was most likely wounded from the GIW.

There. Her hand grasped a tuft of icy cold hair.

"Show yourself," she demanded. "I know you're here."

After a moment or two, the ghost made a strangled choking sound but remained invisible. Fine, if that's how you want to play this….

"Hey," she softened her tone, "I won't hurt you. They're gone now. The GIW, right?"

"Mmph kay," the ghost responded. Well, that response was a little more coherent.

"You can turn visible again. You don't have to strain yourself."

She didn't know why she was reassuring the ghost of these things. It only felt natural, to offer sympathy to something injured. Perhaps that was another one of her flaws, but oh well.

"'Em visible?" and the ghost shimmered into view. Once her mind recounted the horror that she was seeing, she had to stifle a scream. It was Phantom, but only his head. His severed head was bleeding ectoplasm out onto the alley and he looked delirious, unaware of what was happening.

"Ph - Phantom?" she gasped. "What did they do to you?"

"I dunno," his eyes were half-lidded at this point. "-urt."

"Phantom, you have to stay with me," Valerie flicked his face, attempting to keep him awake. It was clear he was on the verge of passing out. She didn't know why she was helping her enemy, but she knew that this was wrong. The Guys In White had really fucked up big time.

"Nur, sleep," he mumbled, finally closing his eyes.

Valerie waited for a moment, waiting for any indication that he was still awake, but found none. That was, until a flash of white light enveloped Phantom's face, creating a single halo around him. It broke into two beams of light and Valerie blinked many times to convince herself she wasn't dreaming. But - but this didn't….

The decapitated head of Phantom morphed into Danny Fenton. With one movement of light, her enemy transformed into her ex-boyfriend… with a grisly mangled stump for a neck. The ectoplasm spilling out of Phantom's wound darkened into warm, human blood and Valerie almost threw up on the spot.

There was still no way… oh, Danny.

She yearned with worry. If this wasn't just some illusion that meant that… Danny was like Dani, a half-ghost. Oh. Danny and Dani. That was sort of obvious. Anyway, Danny was half-ghost and the GIW had decapitated him (and probably taken his body). And he was still alive, but maybe not for long. Assuming that his parents didn't know about his duality, Valerie was the only one who could possibly save Danny from bleeding out.

"Don't worry," she whispered, carefully lifting his head from the ground. Holding him securely, she pressed her lips to his, reassuringly. Soothingly. "I'll fix this. I'll save you, Danny. I swear."