Danny woke in a dark place. The last thing he remembered was… was… his parents. Blue, Orange. Standing over him with matching cold smiles, ectoranium scalpels in their hands. Bonds, holding him to a table as cold as his parents' frigid eyes. His blood and ectoplasm stained the gloves of both of their jumpsuits. He changed back, but they didn't stop as the green liquid gushing out of his chest changed to a vivid human red.
And their hands were red, red, red with his blood, so much of it it looked black. He could feel himself slipping, and just before death claimed him for the very last time, as his life flashed before his eyes, out it came in a tortured whisper.
"I forgive you. I love you mom. I love you dad."
He saw their faces go from scientific madness to numb to shock to horror to grieving. He saw them throw their scalpels aside and drape themselves over him, but he could no longer feel it. The last thing he heard before his hearing shut down for the very last time was a sob.
"Goodbye." He whispered.
Then he was gone.
Two teens stood in front of a short stone planted upright in the dirt. It was plain and the stone itself was rather unremarkable. The shorter teen, a girl with dark hair, fell to the ground knees hitting the still-fresh earth in front of the stone. Two tears slipped down her face, leaving fresh trails of wetness separate from the rain around them. The other boy turned and walked a short distance away to give her some privacy. She, for the first and last time since she was a child, allowed herself to cry. To the stone she whispered, "Game over. I'm sorry Danny. I'm so, so sorry and I never, never-" she broke off into fresh sobs. The other teen came forward and gave her a hug. She clutched on to him, squeezing tighter than she really should have, but nothing else was going as it should have either.
She whispered over the other boy's shoulder, still staring at the name on the stone.
"I never told him that I loved him. And now- now I never will."
The next day the two teens went through school in a numb daze, the writing on the stone forever branded into their minds.
Daniel 'Danny' Fenton-Phantom
1990 - 2005
Here's to Never Giving Up
Love's an uphill battle,
It's always easier to leave,
But behind the fights and noise and battle,
Know what's underneath.
A gentile soul who lets you in,
No matter what you've done
And while turmoil's glaring din,
Is easier to see,
Always remember the gentile child underneath.