(A/N: This fic is part of a little writing challenge I'm doing for myself: take the oldest story you can handle, and try to rewrite it. This particular work, originally called Lightning in Her Eyes, was originally published in 2011, when I was 13. I'm 17 now, and I'm hoping that my writing style has improved a lot. I especially wanted to work with voice in this fic, since it's written in first person. You can check out the old work on my profile page if you'd like to compare

So here it is: rewritten Danny Phantom au, after Phantom Planet, where the au is that Danny only told his parents about his powers, and not the whole world.)

Chapter 1: Back to the Start

There's a certain calmness about floating, and I'm not just talking about the weightless feeling. I mean, yeah, the weightless feeling is pretty nice, but that itself isn't the best part. The best part is the free feeling in your gut. When I was first learning how to float (and later on fly), that's how they taught me, the scientists. Well, not really all of them. It was mainly Dr. Grey.

"Are you ready, -?" she asked. She had flaming red hair that she always curled back in a neat bun, and she wore, on this day in particular, a bright green lab coat. I always liked her lab coats, in pretty colors. She was the only one who knew how to keep a kid interested.

Oh, and about those dashes. That's where my name would go, if I remembered it. See, once Dr. Grey got sick and had to leave (I can't for the life of me remember how that happened either, and that really pisses me off) none of the scientists used my name anymore, so I just forgot. Whatever, I got to choose my own name now, so I guess it doesn't really matter that much.

Anyway, learning to fly. So I was with Dr. Grey, and she had on her green lab coat, and I know there must have been other scientists in the room, monitoring things and assisting her, but all I really remember is Dr. Grey and her kind eyes.

"So, if you want to fly, first you have to think of yourself being free," she said.

"Like in Peter Pan, when Tinkerbell put the pixie dust on Wendy and John and Michael?" I asked. I was four, by the way. Peter Pan was one of my favorite movies.

"Yes, dear, like Wendy. Do you think you can fly like Wendy?" Dr. Grey asked.

"Yeah!" I yelled, jumping up and down really fast. I remember that scared the other scientists, when I did stuff like that. They had these metal shields that they always held in front of themselves when I scared them. Wimps.

So I remember trying like at least ten times to try to fly, thinking of the happiest thing I could think of, but I couldn't fly. I even tried jumping off one of the lab tables, which scared the other scientists, but only seemed to amuse Dr. Grey. I remember after that I started crying and Dr. Grey came over and hugged me.

"Why can't I do it? Why can't I fly? I'm thinking of all the happy things I can think of!" I cried, in between sobs. Dr. Grey patted my head.

"But are you thinking about being free? That's what I told you, dear," she said.

"What does that feel like?" I asked. And that moment I remember very clearly, because Dr. Grey's smile wasn't there anymore. I think that's the only time I saw her when she wasn't smiling.

I now realize that she lost her smile because, well, I wasn't free. I was a test tube baby, made for one purpose – experimentation and the advancement of the human race. Or something like that. I can't remember much of what happened before they changed me. They turned me into what they called a "halfa" half kid, half ghost. Yeah, that's right, half ghost. They half-killed me. When I was two.

For the next four years, they ran tests. The tests weren't so bad, at least when I was with Dr. Grey. Soon after the flying incident, she left. I still don't know why, hard as I try to remember. After she left, my life was a living hell. I was forced into my ghost form more and more often. They ran tests on how to prevent me from returning to my human form. They injected me with different things, drew blood. Mostly they tried to kill me when I was a ghost. I kinda blocked most of those out, not like I wanted to, but I'm pretty sure from all the times I passed out I have some sort of permanent brain damage. The only thing I know is that they tried to kill me, and that was my last straw.

I knew I had to escape the place, so I managed to get out. Not the way most people would, probably. I flung myself into the Ghost Zone when they weren't looking. And that's where I am, ten years later, still just floating along. I finally really know what that free feeling means. And that's the best thing about flying.

So, I was floating along in the Ghost Zone. After all the time I've spent here, it's my home, more than that crumby lab ever was. There may be some nasty ghosts, but mostly they're just misunderstood or confused. In that way I guess I fit in. I'm probably more ghost than human nowadays anyway, since I can't remember the last time I was in human form. Mostly I try to keep my home as homey as possible. I make friends, stop fights, break a few ghosts out of jail, maybe throw away the real world stuff that's started to really pollute the place. Speaking of that, a can just floated past my foot. I frowned and grabbed it, and waited a few seconds. A portal appeared behind me and I chucked the can over my shoulder. It was easy, once you got the feel for portals, to tell when one was gonna open nearby.

So I threw the can out. It wasn't all that interesting anyway. If it had been something cool, I probably would've put it in my bag. But that's another explanation for another time, because right after I threw that can out, there was a huge roar from somewhere to my right. I took off towards it as fast as I could, and once I rounded a cloud of doors, I saw it.

It looked like Stubby just acting up again. He was this huge black lizard thing that I called Stubby because he was missing a tail. Kinda irritable, but for the most part he just went about his business unless someone bothered him. I scrunched my eyebrows together. Now, I didn't see another ghost. So what had frightened the poor thing?

"Man, you're one ugly lizard," a shrill voice yelled. He sounded like a guy, but a little young. Not like any voice I had heard before, except maybe Poindexter, but I've never seen him leave that school.

Stubby swung a claw, and the ghost boy flew into sight, easily dodging the attack.

"Mean too!" he yelled. He shot a barrage of energy blasts at the beast, a few missed, but most of them hit Stubby spot on, who yelled in pain. I decided I had seen enough. I would have to break this up.

As I flew towards the fight, the ghost boy seemed to get distracted, or something happened, I wasn't really paying too close attention, since I was more worried about just how injured Stubby looked (there was already a gaping hole in his shoulder), but by the time I'd gotten there, Stubby had whacked the guy pretty good with his huge taloned paw. He flew a yard onto a floating hunk of rock, right as Stubby was honing in for the final blow.

"Get outta here ya big lug!" I yelled, shooting some energy blasts near his feet. He screeched in response and moved away, but didn't leave. This kid has really pissed him off. Rightfully so, but I didn't want anybody getting more hurt than they were already.

"Go on! Leave!" I yelled again, shooting another blast in his general direction. The ghost lizard finally relented and slunk of to his usual hiding place.

Now I had to deal with that damn ghost kid. I turned to face the rock, but instead of the kid with white hair and a black jumpsuit, I saw a kid – a human kid – with black hair and jeans. As I studied him closer, I noticed that it was, it had to be, the same kid. I landed next to him on the rock and turned his head from side to side, gripping his chin, and yep, that was definitely the same face shape and hairstyle.

Did this mean he was a halfa like me? I mean, I had heard about the other halfa, mostly from the Box Ghost, who sometimes followed me around, annoying me, for days on end, just rambling about boxes and humans and apparently some nasty half-human, half-ghost teenager that likes cylindrical containers better. But I had heard he was a great fighter, some ghosts had even said he was nice for a human. The kid that I was looking at certainly wasn't very nice in my eyes.

Either way, he was hurt so bad he had phased back into human form. I couldn't remember the last time I had been hit that hard. Well, either way, I prided myself on being for the beings (since, you know, not all ghosts were people), so I had to help him, no matter how shitty of a fighter or nasty of a person he was.

There was a portal that was about to open about a hundred yards away, I could tell, so I figured the best course of action would be to take him back to his world and leave him there. Ghost stuff in the Ghost Zone and human stuff in the human world, right? So I had my plan. I picked him up bridal style, one hand under his knees and another around his shoulders, and lifted him quite easily. I was surprised at how light he was, and just how quick I got to the other portal. I had just floated through the portal and gotten my tail out (you know, ghostly tail, I'm not like Wulf), and the dumb thing closed right behind me! Now here I was, in the human world, sunny as all hell, or at least I assumed it was since I couldn't fucking see (how did ghosts go out here? Why? It was hell!) and an unconscious halfa at my feet. Great.