AN: In the original version (and the versions on Tumblr and AO3) I used a mix of blank lines and horizontal lines to break up the story. Unfortunately, FFN doesn't like that, so if there is an overabundance of horizontal lines, now you know why.
Written for Ectoberweek 2018, day 2: disappearance and alone. Second chapter was written later for day 5: harvest, because I liked the AU too much to let it go.
Looking back, his decision to check out a malfunctioning portal into a different dimension while alone at home probably wasn't the best idea Danny has ever had. He wasn't sure if he believed that it could work, because for all his parents enthusiasm about ghosts, they had never seen any. But his parents had worked so hard on building the entire thing, and they seemed so sad when it failed to activate, that Danny couldn't help but take a closer look. Maybe there was something simple that they had missed, something obvious. And if he could figure out what went wrong and fix it, well, a world that no living human had seen before was pretty cool.
And so when Jazz had left for the library and dragged their parents outside as well, Danny made his way to the lab. The Portal was set in the back wall, the cavernous tunnel dark and looming. Danny repressed a shiver as he walked over, stifling his disappointment that there was no glaring mistake visible from outside the Portal.
Turning back around, Danny wandered off to a hidden closet and grabbed one of the few jumpsuits his parents made in his size. While he wasn't sure what the purpose of the suits was in relation to ghost-hunting, he knew that they protected his parents while they worked in the lab, and if he was going to take a closer look at the Portal, he should probably wear the same protective clothing.
Quickly putting on the jumpsuit, Danny glanced at his reflection in the mirror and made a face, then peeled off the bizarre sticker of his dad's face that was plastered on his chest. The suit was rather tight but not uncomfortable, didn't restrict his movements much, and it was surprisingly neutral in coloration, bright white instead of the teal and bright orange that his parents preferred.
Flexing his fingers within the black gloves, Danny hesitantly made his way back over to the Portal before groaning in frustration at himself. He wanted to help his parents by checking out the Portal, so why was he suddenly so sure that it was a bad idea? He ran his fingers through his hair, rolled his eyes at his own stupidity, and then crossed the last stretch between him and the Portal.
It was even more impressive up close, with the entrance made out of an arch of metal and complicated electronics, and while the tunnel beyond it was quickly swallowed by darkness, the little Danny could see was clearly similar.
Crossing the opening of the Portal, Danny put one hand on the wall to his left for support (wouldn't want to trip and damage the electronics, after all) and started walking further into the tunnel. He tried to see if there was anything obviously wrong, an unconnected cable or a loose panel or something, as he slowly picked his way through the cables that sprawled all over the floor.
He suddenly felt part of the wall that he was leaning against give with a rather ominous click, and looked at it as he turned towards the wall. Pulling his hand away revealed a green button, with a red button right next to it. Both had labels, with the green one labeled as ON, and the red one as OFF. Danny groaned as he realized that his parents must have forgotten to hit the on/off switch on the inside of the Portal, and closed his eyes in relief that he had been able to help.
His eyes shot open immediately when he heard a mechanical whine, as he was hit with the realization that no one had unplugged the Portal when it had failed to activate. This revelation wasn't fast enough, however, as the Portal lit up in a blinding flash, and Danny saw nothing but white.
It was followed almost instantly by pain beyond description, of an intensity Danny had never felt before, lighting up every fibre of his body. He could see nothing and feeling nothing beside the immense pain, but he could hear a haunting wail echoing all around him.
The pain left as suddenly as it had come, and Danny found that he had fallen to the floor of the Portal at some point. Pushing himself up again, he realized that the awful sound had been his own scream, as it continued to echo throughout the tunnel.
Putting his hand on the wall of the Portal again, Danny looked around to see if he could see the light of the lab, but saw only darkness. Unsure if it was because he was too deep, or because he was still blinded by the flash, he instead tried to listen to the echoes of his scream. Hearing the echoes originating on his left side, Danny assumed that that must be the back of the tunnel, and turned to his right, slowly stumbling in that direction.
Later, Danny would realize that the reason the echoes were only coming from one direction wasn't because the sound didn't echo in the lab, but because there was no back to the tunnel anymore. The echoes he heard didn't originate at the back of the tunnel like he had thought, but instead came from the lab. This terrible mistake could have been prevented had he not been in the lab alone, as he could have followed the sounds of other people back to the lab instead of having to guess based on echoes.
But, unfortunately for Danny, he had entered the lab alone, and his assumption, while logical, lead him into the wrong direction.
Danny groaned as he woke up, moving to rub the sleep out of eyes as he tried to remember when he had fallen asleep. He stopped immediately as he felt the glove of a jumpsuit touch his face, and he realized he hadn't fallen asleep, but that he must have passed out after the Portal activated.
He pushed himself up, and was shocked that he felt no lingering pain from whatever happened in the Portal. Rubbing the sleep out his eyes with the heel of his hand, he groaned again in exasperation. How could he have been so stupid to walk into the Portal without making sure it was unplugged! He might not be a genius like Jazz, but he never thought of himself as idiotic enough to forget something so simple. He could have died!
Keeping his head bend down to avoid the sharp lights of the lab, Danny slowly opened his eyes, glanced at the hands resting in his lab, and then blinked a few times rapidly, trying to clear his vision. While his sight seemed perfectly clear, the gloves he was wearing looked white instead of the black they should have been, and the jumpsuit itself appeared to be black instead.
He twitched his fingers and watched as they answered as expected, the white gloves behaving just like they did before. Did that flash somehow mess up his vision, and were all colors now inverted?
Frowning, he pulled off one of the gloves, and flexed the hand underneath. At first glance, it looked like it always had, but as Danny looked closer, he realized that it seemed to be glowing slightly. Looking over at his other hand, he realized that both the hand and the glove it held also appeared to be glowing. Maybe the activation of the Portal released some kind of radioactivity? Radioactive stuff always glowed in cartoons, so there must be something true about that, right? But then why were the colors of his jumpsuit inverted? Some kind of weird effect between the radioactive chemical and the materials of his suit? Unlikely, but not the weirdest thing that had happened in the Fenton household.
Pulling the glove back on, he inspected the rest of his outfit. The gloves, boots, belt, and collar had all changed to pure white, while the suit itself had become a deep black. The color appeared to be spread evenly, with no missed spots of flecks or anything to show that it was caused by a chemical, making it look like the suit had always been like this.
Putting his elbow on his knee and laying his head on the palm, he closed his eyes and groaned once more. Forget his good intentions, his parents were gonna kill him for endangering himself in their lab. Who knows what that radioactive blast from the Portal did to him!
Lifting his head back up, he slowly dragged his hand down from his forehead until it rested on his face, and huffed in frustration as he opened his eyes. His still-rambling thoughts suddenly halted as he saw the hairs he had inadvertently pinned to his head.
Straightening up, Danny grabbed the front locks of his hair and pulled them down in front of his eyes so he could see them better. Instead of the pure black it had always been, his hair seemed to have followed the example of his suit and inverted colors as well, as the locks he held were white as fresh snow. The effects of the flash apparently weren't limited to just his suit.
Wait, if it inverted the color of his hair as well, why didn't his skin change? And what about his eyes? What color was sky blue inverted anyway? Maybe it only flipped black and white, but then did it change the color of his teeth and eye-whites as well? Forget the old-man hair, black teeth would be freaky as hell.
Deciding he should probably stop freaking out and check out his reflection in a mirror, he finally looked around himself, and promptly realized that he wasn't in the lab at all. Instead he appeared to be in some kind of wide open space, the sky black but starless, and with some bizarre green substance swirling around instead. He could see several islands floating in the sky all around him, in various sizes but none of them very big. Even more strangely, there also appeared to be several purple doors floating around, all with various styles of decoration.
Looking at the ground he was sat on, he saw that it was another island, barely bigger than himself and sparsely covered with vibrant green grass. He wondered where he was and how he had gotten there, and then groaned as he realized that if the Portal did indeed work, then this must be the Ghost Zone.
Getting to his feet, Danny started to inspect his environment with a little more care. If this was the Ghost Zone, which seemed increasingly likely, then the Portal should be present on this side as well. After all, it was supposed to be a permanent doorway between the 'real' world and the 'ghost' world, and a doorway could be accessed from both sides.
But as he slowly turned in a circle, Danny couldn't find the metal arch of the Portal, and he realized that it was probably only build on the open side of the tunnel. He had no idea what the Portal would look like without the frame, and he couldn't see anything that looked like it might be the Portal, either. Only a few more islands, including a fairly large one in the distance which appeared to have some sort of trees growing on it. If this was, in fact, the world where ghosts came from, then shouldn't the trees be dead as well? Were these some sort of ghost trees?
He snapped out of his distracted contemplation when he saw his hand fade out of sight, and blinked rapidly in the hope that it would return. When it didn't, he lifted up his other arm and saw that it had vanished as well, and a glance down confirmed that the rest of his body had also disappeared. Shocked, he pulled his hands closer to himself, and was surprised but somewhat relieved to feel both gloved hands press against his chest.
Danny inhaled deeply and closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down. Alright, so he just… turned invisible or something. Probably another side-effect from the Portal activation, and probably temporary, since it only just happened. Exhaling again, Danny opened his eyes to find that he had indeed returned to visibility.
Closing his eyes to take another deep breath, Danny didn't notice that he had started to slowly sink through the floor. When he exhaled, however, he had angled his head down, and was thus granted a startling view of his feet missing from the ankle down, the ground hiding the rest. He yelped, startled, and jumped up, trying to pull his feet from the floor. They came loose effortlessly, slipping through the floor as if it wasn't even there, but then they followed the momentum of his body and left the ground entirely.
Danny blinked, baffled, as he saw the distance between his boots and the island slowly increase. Realizing that he seemed to be floating away, he twisted himself around, trying to flail himself back to the solid ground he had woken up on. Gravity chose that moment to make itself known again, and Danny fell down onto the island with a loud thump.
Rolling himself back onto his back, Danny tried to collect his thoughts to figure out what just happened. "Okay, come on Fenton, deep breaths," he muttered to himself. "Let's just- Let's try to summarize what just happened."
Taking a deep breath, he pulled himself back into a sitting position, distractedly playing with the hem of his glove. "So, I turned on my parents' Ghost Portal while I was inside it. There was a great big flash, and then a lot of pain, and then suddenly it was gone again. I must have blacked out after that, because I woke up here. Here being," he glanced around himself, taking in the ever-shifting green sky and the floating islands. "Here being the Ghost Zone, I guess. For some reason, the colors of my suit and my hair are flipped, with black now being white and white now being black. And I appear to be glowing too."
He pulled his legs up, wrapping his arms around them and laying his head on his knees before continuing to talk to himself. "And to make things weirder, just now I disappeared from sight, then I sunk through the island, and then I hovered above it, almost floating away. It's just… surely the Portal can't have caused all these weird symptoms? I mean, invisibility, going through solid objects, and floating? That's like..." he trailed off, before gasping out loud.
"It's all ghost stuff. Invisibility, floating, and… what do my parents call it? Intangibility? They're all basic ghost powers, according to them." His eyes suddenly widened in realization. "I get in an accident with the Portal, it hurts a lot before suddenly stopping like it never happened, and I wake up in the Ghost Zone with ghost powers. God, I'm an idiot," he groaned out loud, releasing his hold on his knees to push the heels of his hands against his eyes. "I must have- I must have died in the Portal, and now I'm a ghost in the Ghost Zone." Straightening out again, he glanced around once more as another realization came to him. "That's why there is no Portal on this side! It didn't actually work, or if it did then it didn't stay open. I woke up here because… because I'm a ghost now."
"Oh crud, I'm a ghost now. My parents are gonna kill me," he muttered, before gasping again. "Oh no, my parents! And god, Jazz, and Sam and Tucker as well. They're all gonna be so hurt about this… No doubt that mom and dad are going to feel so guilty about letting one of their inventions hurt me, let alone kill me! And Jazz… She has always hated their obsession with ghosts, and now it," Danny gulped, "and now it killed me. And Sam and Tucker are gonna be devastated, too."
"I don't even know if I should find a way back home. I mean, I'm a ghost now, right? So I guess I should… stay here in the Ghost Zone?"
Hesitantly pushing himself back into a standing position, Danny looked at the area around the island again. The doors and islands appeared to be slowly drifting around, as if they were carried around by some sort of breeze, but they were moving so slowly that it was almost unnoticeable. The big island with trees appeared to be either static, or it was moving so slowly that Danny couldn't tell the difference.
"I guess- I guess this is where I live now, then? Or, well, not live, but exist, I guess? Man, this is beyond confusing. Mom and dad never mentioned how confusing death is..."
"Actually, a lot of the things mom and dad said about ghosts don't seem to be right. I mean, didn't they say that ghosts were driven by obsessions, and that they couldn't remember who they were when they were alive? Maybe," he gulped, "maybe that comes with time? I don't know if that would be an improvement over this, really. But I'll figure that out as I go, I guess. For now, let's focus on one thing at a time, starting with making my way over to that big island in the distance."
He frowned in thought, trying to think of a way to test if gravity existed in the Ghost Zone, before face palming. "Duh, I'm an idiot. Ghosts can fly. I just have to figure out how I did it before."
Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Danny tried to focus on the weightless feeling from before. Opening his eyes, he was startled to find that it had worked, and crashed back into the ground. "Alright, so I need to focus for it to work, at least for now. That's good to know. Let's try this again."
Once again closing his eyes and focusing on the feeling, Danny mentally prepared himself to finding himself floating above the island and opened his eyes. This time he stayed in the air, and he took the island he had targeted in his sight.
"So now, I just need to move in that direction. Somehow."
Taking another deep breath but keeping his eyes open, Danny focused on the distant island and tried to just… force his body to go towards it. When it didn't immediately work, he sighed deeply.
"So how am I supposed to make myself move? Do I have to pose like Superman or something?" he muttered in exasperation, before jokingly mimicking a superhero pose, straightening out his body and shoving his clenched fists in front of him. He immediately jarred forward, body following the direction of his fists. Startled, he dropped his hands again, but his body didn't stop as suddenly as it had started, and he tumbled in mid-air, managing to catch himself before he fell back onto the island. "Okay, so that worked somehow. So now I just gotta make my way over to that island."
Righting himself with a twist of his body, he shoved his fists in front of his face again, this time allowing his body to continue in said direction, slowly picking up speed as he approached the island.
Danny wasn't sure what he was going to do after he got to the island, but well, he could figure this out as he went. After all, he was already dead, what else could happen to him?
"Danny sweetie, we're home!" Maddie called as she entered the house, but no answer came. He mustn't have heard her, probably playing one of his video games or something, she decided.
Walking through the living room of FentonWorks and into the kitchen, Maddie frowned as she found the door to the lab open. She was pretty sure that they had closed it when they left, and the kids weren't allowed in the lab without supervision. Glancing back at her husband who had followed her into the kitchen carrying some groceries, she asked. "Jack, we closed to door to the lab when we left, right?"
Jack nodded before answering. "Yeah, we did. Do you think Danny went to check it out?" He gasped. "Maybe he's interested in ghosts but didn't know how to tell us! Let's go look!" He immediately stormed off, rushing down the stairs and into the lab. Maddie followed him at a more sedate pace, trying to decide on a punishment for Danny. No matter the reason, he had broken an important rule. The lab was dangerous, especially without supervision.
Landing at the bottom step, however, her attention was instantly drawn towards the back wall of the lab. The previously non-functional Ghost Portal had apparently activated while they had been away, the metal arch of its frame containing a swirling green mass. Jack had run over and stood by its side, checking over the machinery connected to it.
Pulling her eyes off of the Portal, Maddie glanced around to lab, but couldn't see Danny anywhere. She turned back to her husband. "Jack, did you see Danny in the lab when you came down?"
He looked up from the computer he had been checking, frowning. "No. Think he might have gone upstairs again?"
"Probably. I'll go check, he shouldn't have been down here in the lab without us," she agreed, reluctantly turning around again. The Portal was fascinating, but her family was more important. Danny could have gotten himself hurt, and if he had been down in the lab, he might know what caused the Portal to turn on.
Making her way back into the living room and then up the stairs, Maddie stopped in front of the door to Danny's room and rapped her knuckles against it. No answer. She knocked again before calling out to him. "Danny? Can I come in sweetie, we need to talk."
Still no answer. Strange, normally Danny would have called back already. Teenager or not, he was well-behaved.
Frowning, she grabbed the handle of his door, but didn't open it yet. "Danny, I'm coming in, okay?"
Hearing no protests (or sounds of any kind), she pushed down the handle and opened the door. The room was a mess like usual, but there were no signs of Danny. There were no open books or homework that he was working on, and both the TV and the computer were turned off.
Walking into the room, Maddie spotted his phone lying on his desk. So he hadn't left the house either.
As she made her way back over to the stairs she tried to think of where Danny could have gone. She could see that the door of the bathroom was open and the light was off, so he wasn't in there. Not in his own room, not in the lab, not in the living room or the kitchen. He had no reason to go into Jazz's room, and he knew not to try either. So that left the backyard, and the Ops Center.
She whirled around suddenly, moving towards the ladder into the Ops Center and swiftly climbing it. If he was hiding in the Ops Center, he was in big trouble. He already broke the rule that he wasn't allowed in the lab without supervision, but the same applied to the Ops Center.
However, as she opened the hatch and pulled herself through the opening, she could already tell that Danny wasn't there. Walking over to the windows, she looked down into the yard of their house, but didn't see him there either.
She made her way back to the lab, finding Jack still fiddling with the Portal.
"Jack honey, I can't find Danny anywhere. Are you sure that he's not in the lab?"
Jack turned away from the massive machine to look at Maddie, an uncertain look on his face. "Yeah, I would have noticed. I don't think anything in the lab has been moved Mads, are you sure that he was down here? Maybe he's just gone out with friends and forgot to tell us."
"No, that couldn't have been it. Danny doesn't leave the house without his phone, and I found it upstairs on his desk. Besides, someone must have gone into the lab, and Danny was the only one home. Who else could it have been?"
Jack glanced back at the Portal before his eyes widened in shock. "A ghost! A ghost must have come through the Portal and opened the door!"
Maddie rolled her eyes in fond exasperation. "Jack, a ghost wouldn't need to open the door. It could have just gone through it, remember? Unless..." she trailed off, but Jack caught on.
"Unless it kidnapped Danny! That filthy piece of ectoplasm took our son!" he yelled, scrambling over to a nearby table to sort through their experimental weaponry. "I'll teach it not to touch our kids! I'll tear it apart molecule by molecule!"
When Jazz finally came home from her trip to library, she was greeted by a surprising amount of yelling. She was used to the house being noisy and chaotic (part of the 'charm' of growing up in as a Fenton) but it seemed different today. While she had, admittedly, forced her parents out of the house earlier that day in the hopes that they would cheer up a little, she didn't expect them to bounce back to their regular loud selves this quickly. Biting her lower lip, she listened more carefully to the yelling, unable to tell what was going on but catching on to the angry tones.
Hesitantly making her way over to the yelling, she determined that her parents were in the lab. Idling at the top of the stairs for a moment, she decided to investigate more closely.
The lab she entered was a thousand times more chaotic than it normally was. There were tools and partially assembled inventions scattered everywhere, limited not only to the tables and shelves but now also spread all over the floor and even the walls. She quickly located her parents (thank goodness for their bright jumpsuits) standing near one of the tables, with her dad holding a large metal gun-like machine. They sounded agitated, but didn't seem to be fighting with each other as she had originally thought.
Carefully picking her way through the mess, she approached her parents and cleared her throat. "What's going on here? What happened?"
Her mom turned around and pulled down the hood of her jumpsuit, and Jazz was startled to see that her eyes were red as if she had been crying. "Oh Jazz… Something awful happened."
Her dad cut in, anger lacing his voice. "Some no-good piece of putrid ectoplasm kidnapped your brother! The Portal turned on while we were out of the house, and Danny is nowhere to be found, so clearly some evil ghost came through and took your brother. But don't worry, we're gonna get him back!"
"Are you insane?!" Jazz yelled, startling her parents. "As if this stupid ghost obsession of yours isn't unbelievable enough, now you're telling me that a ghost came into our house and kidnapped Danny?! What makes you so sure that he's not just hanging out somewhere with Sam and Tucker? Did you even try calling them to ask if they've seen him?"
Seeing her parents falter, Jazz continued. "So you didn't, huh? Let's start with calling those two and asking when they've last seen him, and then we'll consider the possibility that something happened to Danny."
She stormed back up the stairs, and heard her parents put down their stuff and follow her. Grabbing the phone in the kitchen, she dialed Tucker's house phone and listened to it ring, forcing herself to calm down.
"Hello, Foley household, this is Angela speaking." Jazz glanced at her parents, who had finally reached the top of the stairs, before answering. "Hey Mrs. Foley, this is Jazz. Is Danny over at your place?"
"No, I don't think so. Hang on, I'll go check for you." Quiet footsteps could be heard, followed by a conversation too quiet to hear through the phone. "No, and Tucker hasn't heard from him in a couple of hours either. Maybe he's with Sam?"
"Yeah, maybe. I'll try them next. Thanks Mrs. Foley," she sighed.
"It's no problem, sorry I couldn't help more."
Jazz ended the call and looked at her parents, who had settled down around the kitchen table during the call. "Do either of you know the phone number of the Mansons?"
Seeing her mom nod, she handed over the phone and watched her call Sam's family. She couldn't really follow the conversation, but the grim expression on her mom's face told her enough, even before the call ended.
"Sam hasn't heard anything from Danny for hours either, and she doesn't know anywhere else he could have gone to," Maddie confirmed as she put the phone down on the table.
"Okay, so he's not with his friends, and he's not inside the house. So now we go to the lab to catch this ghost!" Jack exclaimed as he pushed himself up, moments away from storming back downstairs. Jazz grabbed his arm and stopped him, a furious expression on her face.
"No! Now we call the police and tell them that Danny is gone! Even if a ghost is responsible, which I highly doubt, they still need to know that he's missing!" Jazz yelled, and clawed her fingers into her dad's arm. He made a dubious face at her, but nodded his consent and sat back down. "Good. Mom, can you call the police?"
The police were, in fact, called. They came over and interviewed Jazz and her parents, but didn't investigate much and barely looked around. They patiently listened to Jack and Maddie as they explained that their Ghost Portal turned on while they weren't home, and that a ghost must have come through it and that it must have taken Danny with it into the Ghost Zone. Knowing the reputation of the Fentons, they didn't try denying the possibility, and instead turned to Jazz as the most mature person available.
They speculated that Danny had simply run away from home, arguing that a lot of kids ran away from home at some point, even teenagers. The crazy Fenton household held plenty of reasons that could have inspired a kid to leave, and while Jazz agreed, she also didn't think that Danny was the type to run away from his family like that. The police shrugged her off, however, as she was only sixteen, and her parents were nuts.
They told the Fentons that they would do their best to find Danny, but most runaways returned home within hours or, at most, a few days. The Fentons were told to call the police again if Danny still hadn't shown up a week later, and then they were gone, leaving behind the stunned and frustrated family.
Jazz couldn't believe that the police would just shrug off the possibility that Danny had been kidnapped, and the Fenton parents couldn't believe that the police didn't even consider that ghosts might have been involved. They returned to the lab and doubled their efforts, trying to develop weaponry to fight ghosts and equipment to traverse the Ghost Zone so they could go looking for Danny. Jazz focused on researching the psychology behind runaways, and later started looking into ways to determine if someone was kidnapped.
Sam stared anxiously at the phone lying on her desk. Since Mrs. Fenton had called and asked if she knew where Danny was, she couldn't stop worrying about him. According to his mom, Danny had disappeared from the house and hadn't taken his phone with him, and he wasn't with Tucker either. Sighing heavily, she decided that she had had enough of lying around and waiting for news, and she grabbed her phone to call Tucker.
They quickly agreed to meet at Tucker's house, and Sam made her way over in record time. Tucker greeted her at the door, and together they set off towards Danny's house.
The bright FentonWorks sign greets them from several streets away, but it does nothing to stop the dread that they feel from forming. They ring the bell, even though they would normally just walk in without warning, and wait until the door is finally opened by Jazz, who makes a confused face in their direction.
"Sam? Tucker? What are you guys doing here?" she questions as she beckons them inside.
"We haven't heard anything from Danny in hours, and between your phone call to Tucker and your mom's phone call with me, we got really worried. Is he okay?" Sam asks, as Tucker nods to confirm her story.
Jazz hesitates and glances towards the kitchen, before leading the teens over to the couch and sitting down, Sam and Tucker following her example.
"We- We don't know if he's okay. All of us were out today, and when we came home Danny was missing. After we called you two to ask if you knew where he was, we called the police, but they were… less than helpful."
Seeing that the other two were speechless, she continued. "The police think that Danny ran away, that this whole crazy ghost-hunting parents thing got too much for him, and they think he'll be back in a few days at most."
"Yeah, no way. Danny isn't the running away type, and he loves his parents even if they're a little nuts," Tucker declared, and Sam nodded but didn't add anything.
"That's what I thought too. I looked up some literature about the psychology of runaways," Sam rolled her eyes and muttered "of course you did" under her breath, "but Danny doesn't fit the profile at all. And there's nothing that suggests he ran away either, none of clothes or possessions are missing."
"And what do your parents think of all this?" Tucker urged.
"They think a ghost is responsible, of course." Jazz rolled her eyes. "Apparently the Portal turned on while we were away, and they think a ghost came through and that it kidnapped Danny and took him into the Portal."
"Wait, the Portal turned on and Danny goes missing at the same time? That's pretty suspicious, isn't it?"
"Yeah, I agree with Sam. Even if I'm not sure that ghosts exist, that's too much of a coincidence. Whatever happened to Danny, I think the Portal was involved."
Jazz nodded. "I thought so too. I mean, I don't believe in ghosts, and Danny isn't allowed in the lab while our parents aren't there to supervise, but I think he was there when the Portal turned on. I'm not sure what happened though, or what the Portal even does, since I highly doubt that it leads into an alternate dimension filled with ghosts like my parents think."
"So, the Portal turned on and now Danny is missing," Tucker summarized, and the two girls nodded in confirmation.
"I mean, even if I think ghosts are pretty cool, this is super messed up. Your parents build a crazy science-defying Portal into another dimension, but they don't know anything about it, do they?" Seeing Jazz shake her head, Sam continued. "So your parents are clever enough to figure out this ridiculous machine, but didn't take any safety precautions to make sure no one got pulled in? And they didn't build anything to allow them to go in there either, did they? So if Danny is wherever this Portal leads, we have no way of checking and no way of getting to him."
"Basically, Danny went missing because of this crazy obsession with ghosts that our parents have, and there's nothing we can do to help."
"Man Jazz, I can't even describe how fucked up that is."
Unfortunately, the mysterious disappearance of Danny Fenton was only the start of trouble for Amity Park. A month after he was reported missing, disaster struck once more as people reported being attacked by strange floating creatures. The two creatures, who resembled green octopuses despite having only four tentacles each, attacked a neighborhood near FentonWorks and had caused several injuries before they had been scared off.
Several more bizarre green animals started attacking in the weeks afterwards, and almost two months after the first activation of the Fenton Ghost Portal, the first true ghost was spotted. A floating blue man had attacked at the docks, causing several minor injuries before he got distracted by a nearby pile of boxes, giving his victims a chance to get away.
The city, growing increasingly desperate, turned to the Fentons and asked them if these creatures were ghosts. The Fentons confirmed, and were soon hired by the city to fight off these dangerous creatures. They had great success thanks to the various weapons and trackers that they had developed in the time since the Portal first activated, even if they had intended them for a slightly different purpose.
However, as the Fentons succeeded in fighting off these ghosts, more and more specters came in their stead, and stronger as well. They had to put more and more time into developing better weaponry, as these stronger ghosts also proved to be much more dangerous than previous enemies.
The Fentons struggled their way through various fights, conquering enemies like a technology-controlling ghost, a wish-granting ghost, and even a musician ghost that had hypnotized almost every teen in the city, including their own daughter, but they continued to spend every free moment they got developing tools in the hopes of tracking down their wayward son in the Ghost Zone. Every sentient ghost they encountered was questioned if they had seen a teen with black hair and blue eyes in the Ghost Zone, but no one remembered seeing him.
Eventually it escalated far beyond what the Fentons were used to dealing with, as a group of ghosts went nuts on a ghost-powered crime spree, robbing stores and banks and stealing anything of value. As more and more ghosts joined the group, the stolen possessions were eventually tracked down to a traveling circus by the name of Circus Gothica, and the ringmaster was revealed to possess an ancient relic which allowed him to control ghosts.
The ringmaster was arrested, the stolen possessions were returned, and the ghosts were freed (the relic had shattered during the fight). Unfortunately, the peace still didn't return to Amity Park, as ghost activity remained at an all-time high, and the only ghost hunters in Amity Park were forced to abandon their search of the Ghost Zone to focus exclusively on ghost hunting. They still asked every ghost about their son, but never got the answers they desired.
Many months later, Amity was abuzz with rumors about a new ghost, seen only by the teens of Amity Park. The adults of Amity Park had all been kidnapped by group of ghosts and brought to a flying pirate ship, including the only experienced ghost hunters, the Fentons. While the only teens with a passing knowledge of ghost weaponry had been desperately trying to come up with a plan, a new ghost had shown up and started fighting the kidnapping ghosts.
The fight took place high in the sky and not much of it was seen, but the new ghost was seen carrying all the kidnapped adults to safety after the ship crashed. He was quick to flee, however, when he noticed people approaching him, and so they only knew that he appeared to be a teenager, with white hair and wearing mostly black.
The ghost was seen again during the ghost invasion, when the skeleton army of Pariah Dark attacked Amity Park. He was spotted numerous times, seen conversing with other ghosts, and appeared to be assembling some sort of army. The invasion ended soon after, and ghosts around the city could be heard celebrating the victory of 'Phantom' and his army against Pariah Dark. The name is quickly connected to the previously seen teen ghost, and many of Amity's people were more than happy to cheer the mysterious ghost on, as he had apparently saved them again.
The Fentons first encounter Phantom while they were fighting Technus, who had taken over the Fenton RV and was easily outmatching them. Phantom quickly took the fight away from the city, and the Fentons lose track of both ghosts, although when they return home after patrolling the city, they find the RV waiting for them at their house, almost entirely undamaged.
While they didn't get a good look at Phantom, his general appearance is rather... suspect. A teenage ghost, appearing roughly the same age as their missing son, with an almost identical hair style, and wearing a jumpsuit extremely similar to the ones the Fentons prefer, was cause of much concern from the Fenton parents.
They sit down in the lab to discuss their findings in private, and quickly agree that it's quite likely that Phantom is Danny's ghost. They quietly wonder if he remembers anything from his life, if he recognizes them as his parents, if he could tell them what happened when he had disappeared, how he died. They spend the next several hours in the lab trying to deal with the possibility that Danny might be dead.
Phantom is spotted a few times more, but only during ghost fights and he always keeps his distance from humans. The Fentons always try to be there, hoping to get a good look at Phantom to confirm his identity, but Phantom appears and disappears almost instantly, somehow hiding from their radars outside of the fights.
Jack and Maddie finally see an opportunity during a fight between Phantom and a sky blue ghost dragon. Knowing that he always tries to take fights to quiet areas without people, they manage to find him again before the fight finishes. He zips around the dragon, avoiding the snapping jaws and clawing hands, and grabs the amulet it wears. He swiftly removes it, and to the amazement of the Fentons, the dragon shrinks down into a humanoid ghost, which Phantom promptly shoves through a natural portal that conveniently opened right next to him.
Seeing that he had finished the fight, and knowing that he was about to disappear, they call out to him. Phantom hesitates, but doesn't leave, lowering himself so he's closer to the Fentons. They watch him closely, and while he doesn't appear to recognize them, they can clearly tell that he's Danny, despite the white hair and the glowing green eyes.
"Uh, hey? What did you guys want?" he asks, and Maddie has to repress a shiver as the voice was undeniably Danny's, despite the echo that every ghost seemed to have. Seeing his wife struggle, Jack took control of the conversation.
"Phantom, right?" Seeing the ghost nod, he continued on. "We want to make a deal. A truce of sorts, if you will."
"What kind of deal?"
Glancing at Jack, Maddie took back over. "As long as you keep behaving as you do now, fighting off other ghosts and not causing any trouble, we'll let you have free reign in Amity Park. And if you ever get in trouble, you can come to us and we'll do our best to help you."
Phantom frowns, clearly thinking it through, before he nods sharply. "That sounds pretty good. You've got a deal."
Jack grins boyishly and stuck out his hand towards the ghost. The boy hesitates for a moment before shaking the offered hand, and then repeats the action with Maddie.
"Well, if that was all, I really have to, y'know," he makes a vague movement with his hands, "go. I have ghostly business to take care off and stuff."
The Fentons nod, and watch as Phantom raises himself up in the air again, before he zips off, away from the city. Tracking him on their radar, they saw him approach another ghost, before stopping, and then both disappear like they had never been there in the first place.
Burdened by the confirmation that Phantom was Danny, as they had thought but had hoped against, the Fentons return home, where they lock themselves up in the lab to mourn the death of their son. Several hours later, as the truth had settled and many tears had been shed, Jack and Maddie discuss what they should do next.
Jack, while saddened that his son had died and became a ghost, was proud that his son had chosen to be a ghost hunter after all, especially as he went against his ghostly nature and was benevolent rather than malevolent as ghosts tended to be. Maddie was horrified that their son had been killed by one of their inventions, even if indirectly. They vowed to find out which ghost had come out of the Portal and attacked Danny, as it was clear to them that this unknown ghost must have brought him into the Ghost Zone and either left him to die, or outright killed him. They also decided to hide the truth from Jazz, Sam, and Tucker, so that the kids could hold on to the slightest hope that Danny might still be alive.
Unfortunately, this proved more difficult than anticipated, and Jazz connected the dots within a week. Between Phantom's general appearance, the fact that her parents agreed to a truce with him almost immediately, and their overall gloomy mood, it was clear that they had determined that Phantom was Danny. She waited for almost a month, hoping that they would tell her on their own, but eventually confronted them.
Her parents admitted that they spoke to Phantom, and that it was undeniable that he was Danny when they saw him up close, and especially when they heard him talk. They also tell her that Danny didn't recognize them at all, and Jazz agrees with their suspicions that if he didn't recognize his parents, he likely wouldn't know his sister or his friends either. Jazz agreed not to tell Sam and Tucker until the three of them figure out a way to break the news to them nicely.
School was hard for Sam and Tucker, the disappearance of their best friend still weighing heavily on their minds. The increased gossiping and idolizing of Phantom didn't help much either, as some people crossed the border into obsession, a clear example being Paulina who had started building a shrine dedicated to Phantom in her locker.
Walking past said locker, Sam pointed and made a disgusted face, Tucker chuckling in response. His laughter was cut short however as he suddenly slipped and fell. He groaned as Sam helped him back up, and glanced down to find that he had slipped on a photo.
Picking it up, he found that it was a surprisingly clear photo of Phantom, which had likely fallen out of Paulina's locker. He furrowed his brow as he looked at it, struck with a terrible sense of foreboding as he suddenly realized that he recognized that face. Sam, seeing his distress, came over and pulled the photo out of his hand without looking at it.
"What's wrong Tucker? Really unflattering picture of Paulina?" she joked, trying to lighten the mood but failing. He mutely shook his head and pointed at the picture. Taking the hint, Sam flipped it over and scrutinized it.
At first glance it appeared to be a pretty normal picture of Phantom, although it was quite sharp which was rare for photos of the elusive ghost. She was about to comment that she didn't understand why it had freaked out Tucker so much, and then she saw what he had seen. The determined expression with his brow furrowed and eyes focused on something out of frame was startlingly familiar, and she recalled when she had last seen that exact same expression, worn by her other best friend as he was building an extremely detailed model rocket. If she imagined the boy on the photo with black hair instead of white, and blue eyes instead of green, he looked exactly like Danny.
Looking back at Tucker with a pained expression, she quickly decided that they had to talk to the Fentons. Grabbing Tucker by the arm and dragging him along with her, she swiftly excited the school and started walking towards FentonWorks, ignoring Tucker's protests.
She stormed inside without knocking, startling the two adults who sat on the couch.
"Sam? Tucker? Why aren't you in school? Was there an attack?" Maddie asked, concern lacing her voice as she took in their dark expressions.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Sam demanded, ignoring the questions asked. Maddie looked back at her husband, before hesitantly answering. "Tell you what, Sam?"
"Mrs. Fenton, with all due respect, we're not stupid. You've had a truce with Phantom for weeks. When were you going to tell us that you figured out that he's Danny?" Tucker growled. Both Fentons flinched.
"We… weren't sure how to tell you. We've suspected for a while but didn't have any proof until we talked to him about the truce."
"So you've known for almost two months that our best friend was dead and you didn't even tell us! Don't you know that we care about him too!"
"Sam, you don't understand. Phantom is Danny's ghost, yes, but he's not Danny. He..." she paused, trying to figure out the best way to word what she wanted to say. "He doesn't know us. Phantom didn't recognize either of us, and Jazz agrees that he probably won't remember you two either."
"And that made it okay to hide this from us?!"
"No, it didn't. We're sorry for keeping this from you two, but it's been hard for us too," Jack stepped in, attempting to soothe the irate teenagers.
"You should have told us anyway! You don't even know for sure that he can't remember us!" Sam spat as she whirled around and walked towards the front door.
"Sam, wait! Where are you going?"
"I'm going to find him and I'm going to talk to him. I refuse to believe that Danny would have forgotten us." She fixed the Fentons with a heated glare and walked out, slamming the door shut behind her.
Tucker sighed and shook his head before giving the Fentons a furious glare of his own. "This is still super messed up, just so you know."
Maddie and Jack watched mutely as Tucker left the house as well.
Sam spends most of her time during the next two weeks outside, looking for ghost fights in the hopes of spotting Phantom. While in the past he only showed up to fight the biggest threats, the positive reception by Amity's citizens seemed to inspire him to show up more often, as he started picking off most ghosts that threatened the city.
While he could be spotted several times a day, Phantom continued to shy away from the people of the city. He gladly waved and smiled at onlookers, but never came close unless he had to, and never stopped to interact with them.
Driven by desperation, Sam started to chase after Phantom not only after fights, but during them as well, often coming far closer to the battling ghosts than safe. It became increasingly clear that while Phantom always ignored people, he seemed to actively avoid interacting with Sam.
It all came to a head when she got herself injured during one of Phantom's ghost fights. She was extremely close to the fight, watching Phantom battle a robotic ghost whose name she didn't know. The ghost fired several missiles at Phantom, who skillfully dodged them, leaving them to explode against the surrounding buildings. One of the rockets, however, was heading straight for Sam, and she froze as she watched it speed towards her. She was shoved to the ground moments before it hit, the rocket passing through Phantom, who was floating where she had been a split-second before. He glanced at her, too quickly for her to read his emotions, before racing back up to face the ghost he had been fighting. The fight was over moments later, the robotic ghost frozen solid and captured in a borrowed Fenton Thermos, and Phantom sped off without even a glance towards her.
As Sam slowly stood back up, Tucker shoved his way through the rapidly dispersing crowd. "Sam! What are you doing?!"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" she spat at him, expecting him to answer with equal anger. He surprised her, however, by grabbing her and pulling her closer to him, wrapping his arms around her in a tight hug. Sam froze, startled momentarily, before melting against him.
"Sam, you can't keep doing this."
"Tucker, you don't understand." She felt him stiffen, and he pulled away from her suddenly.
"I don't understand?!" he snarled. "You don't understand! You keep endangering yourself running after him! Sam, I can't do this, okay? I've already lost one of my best friends, I don't want to lose you too." He closed his eyes, wrapping his arms around himself.
"Oh Tucker, I didn't think of it like that," she apologized, pulling him against herself. "It's just- The Fentons were wrong. Danny recognizes us, or me at least. He just… pretends not to, for some reason."
"You're kidding." Seeing her serious expression, he continued. "You're not. How do you know?"
"It's a few things. He obviously shies away from people because he doesn't want to risk anyone recognizing him, but he straight-up avoids the Fentons and us if possible. When he can't avoid us, he still tries not to look at us. And I know I've seen him with a pained expression on his face when he thought we couldn't see it."
"Damn Sam, that's… that's pretty convincing. Why didn't you tell me and the Fentons about this?"
She pulled away from him and shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. I guess I just hoped that Danny would stop being such an ass and admit that he remembers us." Tucker chuckled a little.
"Well, he was always the clueless one, right?"
"Yeah, I guess so. Let's go to the Fentons and get a plan together."
Sam soon told the Fentons about her observations, and they agreed with her and Tucker that it seemed rather suspect. All four agreed to keep an eye out during future encounters with Phantom, and it soon became clear that she was right. Phantom is avoiding them far more extremely than anyone else in the town, and his nervous behavior during interactions with Maddie and Jack is clearly not just because they're ghost hunters, but because he's afraid that he'll slip up and that they'll figure out that he remembers them.
They try to figure out why Danny would be afraid of telling them who he was, but every possible answer just makes them feel worse.
Eventually a plan is made, and they decide to attempt to corner Danny somewhere private so the six of them can talk.
Danny swoops down in front of the ghost he was chasing through the park, his target some kind of wolf ghost no smarter than a regular wolf, and manages to catch it in his Fenton Thermos before it has a chance to get away. He slows his frantic flight to catch his breath, stopping to hover not far above the ground in a quiet clearing. He hoped for a moment of respite, but his eye was soon drawn to two approaching figures in very recognizable jumpsuits – his parents.
He groans inwardly, but gives them a polite nod as they enter the clearing. They've been following him a lot lately, and he'd been seeing Sam and Tucker and even Jazz more often too. He wondered if they had finally figured out who he was, but he wasn't about to find out. He would rather live in uncertainty for the rest of his existence than see their disappointed expressions after they discover the truth.
He had started backing up the moment he saw them, but suddenly halts and whirls around when he hears rustling coming from behind him. Pushing her way through the bushes was Jazz, with a determined expression on her face. She was soon followed by Sam and Tucker, who left the bushes on either side of him, all wearing similarly pained but adamant expressions.
Turning around, he saw that they had surrounded him. He briefly considers just flying away, or maybe sinking into the ground using his intangibility, but he knew that he couldn't avoid this confrontation forever. The five humans that he loved so dearly all stopped, and a heavy silence hung over them.
"Danny," a quiet voice murmurs, and Danny turns towards the origin to find his mother with tears in her eyes. He hesitates, wanting to deny it, to keep up the pretense, but the expressions on their faces hurt him more than anything he has ever felt. Finally he nods, wordlessly.
Almost instantly he is surrounded by warm bodies, as his loved ones rush towards him and gather him in an enormous group hug. They're all talking to him simultaneously, comforting him and soothing him, and he struggles to make out any of their words. He lets their warmth flood over him before he can finally pick out words, hearing the people around his assure him that they love him even though he's a ghost, and suddenly it all becomes too much, too overwhelming.
He feels tears gather in the corners of his eyes and tries to push away his scrambled emotions, but the metaphorical dam breaks and he blurts out, "I'm not a ghost."
He can feel everyone around him stiffen, and they pull away from him, releasing him from his loving prison. Their expressions vary, but disbelief is present on every face.
"You don't have to deny the truth sweetie, it's okay," Maddie soothes, but Danny shakes his head as more tears form, and he starts crying.
"No, you don't- you don't understand," he manages to utter in-between sobs, "I'm not- I'm not actually a ghost."
He halts, trying to catch his breath and uselessly wiping away some of his tears with a gloved hand. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, holding it for a moment before releasing his hold on the ghostly energy that forms Phantom.
A bright ring of light forms around his waist and splits apart, both halos slowly sweeping over his body. They took away the black jumpsuit and left behind normal clothes, a pair of jeans and a simple t-shirt. As the bottom ring swept over his feet, his white boots were replaced by red sneakers, and the top ring finishes its route as well, leaving behind a black mop of hair. When Danny opens his eyes again, the glowing green had been replaced by the crystalline blue it had once been.
Everyone stills, breaths catching in their throats as they looked at Danny, at their Danny, who looked just like he always had. Even if Phantom had looked almost exactly like Danny, seeing him change to exactly how he had looked before he had died made it hit so much harder. It's like they had never truly grasped that Phantom was Danny until now.
Danny shifts, awkward as everyone's attention was still focused on him, and he brought a hand up to rub his neck. He smiles at them, but his discomfort was clear. "See? Not really a ghost."
Maddie and Jack exchange a few looks, obviously holding a silent conversation, before Maddie steps forward. "Danny, sweetie, there are a number of ghosts who can… appear like they're living human beings. They don't stop being ghosts just because they can look like- like they're alive."
"No, but- Ugh, I suck at explaining this." He scrunches his face in thought, trying to figure out a better way of wording it but failing. "I know that some ghosts can change to look like they're alive, but that's not what this is, okay? Trust me, I've spend a lot of time in the Ghost Zone, talked with a lot of ghosts and stuff. They can just… alter their appearance, but it's only their outside. They're still just as cold as they usually are, and they're still made entirely out of ectoplasm, and they don't need to eat or sleep or anything. I'm not like that. I still get hungry, and tired, and thirsty, and when I hurt myself in this form I bleed red." Seeing the doubtful expressions on the faces of his loved ones, he tries a different route.
"Look, a ghost reverts back to their normal form when they're knocked out, right?" Seeing his parents nod, he continues. "When I pass out, or when I fall asleep, I revert back to this form. My human form is my default, and I can only change into Phantom if I have enough energy to maintain it. The other ghosts call me a halfa, a half ghost, half human hybrid. I swear I'm not making this up."
He was suddenly swallowed up by an enormous body as his dad drew him in a giant hug. "It's okay Danny-boy, we'll figure this out together." Releasing him again, he ruffles Danny's hair and steps back, a goofy smile on his face.
"So you… you don't care?" Seeing everyone nod their agreements, he feels tears welling up again. "I just- So many ghosts hate me because I'm not actually a ghost, y'know? To them I'm just some kind of unnatural abomination, a- a freakthat nobody could love." He closes his eyes as tears start rolling down his cheeks, folding his arms across his chest and curling into himself.
The moment was soon broken by a swift punch to the upper arm, Sam glaring at him as several others chastise her. "You're an idiot, Danny."
Seizing the opportunity, Tucker cut in. "We've missed you, man, and we love you no matter what."
Jazz steps forward as well, nodding at her parents to encourage them to speak too. "Home isn't home without you, little brother."
Clamping a big hand around Danny's shoulder, Jack spoke his own words of love. "Danny, we love you whether you're a ghost, a boy, or something in-between."
"Danny, please come home," Maddie begs.
Caught looking between everyone, Danny sobs and pulls everyone towards him in another group hug. "Yes- yes, I'll come home. I don't want to be alone anymore. I've missed you all so much, so unbelievably much."
And so, more than a year after he had first gone missing, young Danny Fenton finally returned home.