A/N: Wow. 2,345 words... all typed out on my iPod.
This is my very first Danny Phantom fanfic ever. I have been reading them for months, and my favourite ones are reveal fics. More specifically, reveal fics that aren't all, "Oh, we love you Danny! I love you guys too! Luvvvvvvv~".
Anyway, it will probably suck. The characters might be OOC, and it's probably horribly written. Just go easy on me, please?
No PP. It was, in my opinion, a stupid way to end the series. In this story Danny is seventeen and his parents still don't know his secret. Also, the concept of the Dressing Room nightclub is mine. However, Danny Phantom and the song the Dressing Room by Breathe Carolina are not. I own so very little... just a few flags. Please don't sue because you won't get much.
And if people like this, then I can upload the Christmas skit (in fanfiction form) that my friend and I wrote for our school's holiday thing. You might like that too.
Also, I'll most likely be active on FF again after Christmas, when I might get a new computer/laptop/netbook/whatever. So everyone who requested something from me in the Hetalia fandom, I'll be cranking it out over the break AND continuing most of my stories.
Thank you, and please review.
Oh God, I already forgot your name.
But a name's just a string of letters, put together, so clever.
Danny sighed as his ghost sense went off. He went ghost and flew off to meet the source of the disturbance. It turned out to only be a harmless ghost who looked like she was from Dora's kingdom, and he decided that there wouldn't need to be much of a fight.
As he readied his ecto-blast, the young ghost shouted, "Wait! I mean you no harm!" He lowered his hand slightly, letting the energy-charged ball of ectoplasm fade from the palm of his hand, but kept his battle stance in case she was lying, something he found that the ghosts who visited Amity Park generally did.
"Please," she repeated, "I mean you no harm. I am but a messenger, Sir."
"Messenger?" Danny repeated. "From who?"
"It is from Princess Dora," the ghost replied. "And also, I bear an important invitation. I know nothing more." She handed a sealed envelope and a scroll to him and bid him farewell, no doubt flying back to Dora to proudly inform her that she had delivered the important messages successfully.
He had seen her before somewhere, but he couldn't for the life (or afterlife) of him remember her name. Oh well. What was a name anyway? Names and labels were two totally different things; one had a meaning, and one was just a cleverly put-together string of letters. After all, he was both Fenton and Phantom - did that mean he was two different people, or one person with two different names? He decided that maybe it was a little bit of both.
Oh God, I thought that I found God in your name.
It's upsetting but the setting has changed.
We're never gonna be the same.
Danny had no idea what was going to happen in a few short hours: how his parents would find the invitation, and see both of his names on it, and he would have to bring them along.
When Maddie Fenton saw her baby boy's name on that sheet of paper that was glowing slightly, right next to Phantom's, some bizzare invitation with a cryptic message, she thought that she had died. She blacked out for just a second and saw a white light that she was sure had to be God before her son's arrival into the room brought her back from what she was sure would have been her death.
She and Jack demanded answers, and Danny merely sighed.
"I work with Phantom. He's a good guy and we have a lot in common. He and I have been friends since he first surfaced three years ago.
"So since he and I are so close, I was invited to this bi-annual meeting thing that the ghosts have. This will be my second, the first being when I was fifteen. There is absolutely no fighting at all. It's when the ghosts get together to form treaties, alliances, truces, and stuff like that with each other. They can renew treaties or make new alliances. If one powerful ghost makes an ally, all their other allies probably will too. The new alliances are 'everybody putting on new faces' and I just explained why it's 'surprisingly contagious.' The meeting is held in a ghost night-club kind of place called the Dressing Room. Here, look at the invitation again."
They looked, and saw what he meant.
Danny Phantom/Danny Fenton:
If you look everybody here is trying on new faces,
And the ones that fit are surprisingly contagious,
With a shiny new beginning we cordially invite you to the dressing room.
They insisted that he couldn't go alone, so he grudgingly let them accompany him on the condition that they brought no weapons. Them being there would hurt his chances of allies as it is. He placed his hand on the centre of the note, and suddenly the setting changed to that of the Dressing Room.
Danny sighed; he knew that things would never be the same.
Oh God, it seems that I misplaced your secret.
But I can't see what it does, or how it lights you up.
This would never have happened if he hadn't let Jazz borrow the note. She told him that she could hide it well, despite his protests that he could just phase through the floor in his bedroom and stash it under the floorboards. It might put his secret in jeopardy that way, she insisted.
Jazz had misplaced it, though. She had no idea that it was also the key into the Dressing Room. She didn't know what it did, transporting him there in a flash of light.
But it figured that the one place it would be was on Danny's desk - the one place they didn't look.
Oh God, this season has seen better days.
Keep it steady 'cos you're losing the pace.
We're never gonna be the same.
When his parents weren't looking, he duplicated himself - something he had somewhat mastered in the last three years - so that they would see a Fenton and a Phantom. He greeted himself like he would an old friend, and introduced his parents, who grudgingly behaved.
He looked around the room and decided that this season had definitely seen better days. Usually there was a pretty big turnout, but right now there were a lot of ghosts missing. Were they coming late? Were they already deliberating? Would they even be there at all?
As he was walking/floating towards the meeting room, he noticed that his parents were lagging behind. He understood that, as ghost hunters, in a room full of ghosts, with no weapons, they would be wary of their surroundings; and that, as humans, they would be in awe of their surroundings... But he was going to be late. He told them - his human half, that is - that he (and Phantom) would leave them behind if they didn't keep up.
He sighed again, thoughts going back to the feeling that now, things would never be the same again.
If you look everybody here is trying on new faces,
And the ones that fit are suprisingly contagious,
With a shiny new beginning we cordially invite you to the dressing room.
His parents were studying every ghost they saw, but stopped once their son told them to keep up. They now needed something to occupy their time. They thought back to the cryptic words on the invitation and asked why it was in code like that.
Phantom answered them with a snort. "We're ghosts, remember? You're the ones who said we don't have to make sense." They glared at him, demanding an answer, and he sighed. "What if humans like you found it, knew exactly what it was and how to use it, and came here with a bunch of weapons to vaporize us all? Yeah, no thanks."
They really didn't have anything to say to that.
Don't spill your guts
'cos that's a mess that no one wants to clean up.
He went into the meeting room, being very firm on the idea that his mom and dad were absolutely not allowed. They asked why he was, and he replied, "I was invited, and unlike you I only hunt the bad ghosts." Again, they were speechless as their son and Phantom, their sworn enemy, walked together into a room full of ghosts.
Once the door was shut, he sighed in relief and re-absorbed his human doppelganger. His relief was brief, however, as all ghostly eyes turned on him with an accusatory glare.
"Bringing humans is one bad thing, but ghost hunters?" Skulker said angrily. "What are you playing at, whelp?"
"That's a lot more than just against the rules," Walker agreed.
"I didn't want to bring them!" Danny shouted. "They wouldn't let me come otherwise. They still don't know..." he trailed off, then cleared his throat and assured the other ghosts that he made sure they had no weapons. Soon enough the ghosts were placated and left him alone.
"Maybe I should just tell them..." Danny muttered, more to himself than anyone else. Suddenly, he felt a cold hand grab his shoulder and spin him around. He found himself face-to-face with Ember McLain.
"Alright, Dipstick, I'm saying this because I care," she said with a frown. "Don't go spilling your guts out to your folks, cuz then they'll literally spill your guts. And nobody here feels like cleaning that mess up, y'hear?"
Danny knew that she was probably right. It was well known to all the ghosts that Danny was a halfa, and that his parents were ghost hunters. They also knew that halfas were more emotional and powerful than regular ghosts; a dangerous combination. His secret was off-limits to anyone who wanted to stick around. Even the Froot-Loop wasn't crazy enough to reveal him... Though he knew that this was because Vlad's secret would come out as well. The only one who might be stupid enough was Walker, and even he didn't want to take his chances.
"I know," he said with a heavy sigh. "I just..."
He was interrupted by his parents falling through the door. They had been listening in.
Is this enough? My heart is stuck.
This feeling's breaking me up.
"W... Where's our son?" Maddie demanded, looking around the room and noticing that her human son wasn't in there... Or so they thought.
Every ghost's eyes turned to Danny, and his parents scowled. His father rushed over and grabbed him by the front of the shirt. "You!" Jack snarled. "I knew you were no good! What have you done with our Danny?"
Phantom glared back at him and phased out of his grip. He stepped back and crossed his arms. "It's all your fault, not mine!" he snapped.
"What are you talking about, Phantom?" Maddie shouted.
"The fact that for the past three years you've been too blinded by your hatred of ghosts to realize that you've been staring your son in the face this entire time!" Danny screamed back. He knew what he was saying, and he just didn't care anymore. His parents were unarmed now so it was as good a time as ever to come clean, and he was just so sick of their crap at this point. It was tearing him apart.
They just stared at him. At this point his heart was stuck. Should he reveal himself or just make another duplicate? It only took a split second for him to make his decision and before he knew it the white rings of light were traveling up and down his body, restoring his human appearance.
"Is that enough?" he asked quietly.
If you look everybody here is trying on new faces,
And the ones that fit are surprisingly contagious,
With a shiny new beginning we cordially invite you to the dressing room.
To the dressing room.
To the dressing room.
"D-Danny?" his mother finally stammered. He nodded and she ran toward him with tears in her eyes. "Oh, my baby boy!" she sobbed. "I'm so sor-"
"Save it!" he said, going intangible and letting her run right through him. "Just a minute ago I was only a 'filthy ghost' to you. I was still the same person but you were too blinded by prejudice to care! If half of me can be nothing to you then both of you are nothing to me."
"Daniel James Fenton!" his father roared. "Don't you dare talk to your mother like that!"
"You two can hardly call yourselves parents!" he shot back, eyes glowing toxic green. They flinched away, and he knew that they were afraid of him now. He changed back to his ghost form and glared at them. "I'll be back in two days to get my stuff. I'm going to live with Jazz or Sam or Tucker or even Vlad or in the Ghost Zone - anywhere is better than with you two."
"Danny, this isn't you talking," his dad insisted. "It's the ghost inside you. We can get it out, unscramble your DNA, fix you-"
"Did it ever occur to you that I don't need to be fixed?" he demanded. "That I'm just fine the way I am? That I'm HAPPY?" his parents flinched away from his angry glowing green eyes... There was no denying now that they feared him more than they loved him. He let the white rings wash over him and transform him back into a ghost, and muttered, "Of course you didn't. You're too close-minded to think about anything but killing ghosts and eating fudge."
Jack glared at him slightly in a way that let Danny know that if he had an ecto-gun, he'd shoot Danny right in the DP insignia.
"Wulf," he called into the crowd, and the Fentons flinched back at the sight of the werewolf ghost. Danny told Wulf in Esperanto to open a portal to Fenton Works, and it was done. He told them to never come back, and that if they tried anything when he came to get his things then he would retaliate. Dora, Wulf, Frostbite, and a few others stepped forward and claimed that they would help him.
The Fentons, with one more tortured glance to their former son, entered the portal.
They never looked back.