This was supposed to be a one-shot, guys, but apparently you all want to know the actual answer to the question. So, you get another chapter! ~ Zone
II
Valerie tossed and turned in her bed, images of years long past invading her dreams. The battle against Pariah Dark…oh God, his smile…that was when she first realized she loved Danny Fenton. He was always so worried about her, so gentle, so caring…
But where did he go? He disappeared for a while after she failed to take the suit out and fight, Phantom going in her place. He was brought in later by Mr. Masters, beaten and bloody. Oh, she worried so much for him!
The letter had implied some kind of intimate connection between Fenton and Phantom, something deeper than brotherly, deeper than love, even. Deciding she wouldn't going to get any answers stewing over her dreams, she forced herself out of bed and dressed for going outside.
As she stepped out of her bedroom, she paused to look at the one room that hadn't been touched in the old Fenton home – Danny's room. It probably held so many answers, but it felt like entering a mausoleum just opening the blue-painted door. Maybe today…she could bear it? She looked towards the master bedroom where her father slept and reached out to grip the doorknob of the room that had been so silent for eight years.
The door opened with a soft creak, the hallway light shining into the room. Space-themed posters and bedding met her eyes, and as she turned her gaze to look around the room she saw all the evidence of a child who had had a big dream…and it had all been cut short. She knew his grades were poor, he wouldn't have been able to do it anyway, but it was still painful thinking of how he'd lost even the chance to try.
And to what? A mistake done by Phantom? She wrapped her arms around herself and stepped in further, approaching the dust-covered shelves and dresser, looking around her as she walked.
The bed was unmade, like it must've been left the day he'd lost his parents and sister to a freak explosion at the Nasty Burger. She reached out to make it, but stopped and pulled her hand away. Changing it in any way from how it was when he was alive seemed…wrong. Even just being here, kicking up the dust that had built up over eight years, seemed wrong.
Model rockets and spaceships sat scattered on the floor or shelves, some of them bent out of shape by something and then re-bent back into shape and taped into place by hands desperate to repair the damage done to them. She reached out to touch one, but once again pulled her hand back. She couldn't touch it; it wasn't hers to mess with.
She noticed something poking out from under the bed and knelt to pull it out fully. A blood-stained first-aid kit came out, and when she opened it she found most of the bandages and wipes used up, a small sewing kit tucked inside. Whose blood was this? Danny's? She saw red fingerprints, but also green smears on the top of it.
Green – like ectoplasm. Dan Phantom had been in this room, this very spot maybe, with Danny eight years ago. She closed the kit and slid it back under the bed, slowly getting up. Danny Fenton and Phantom…what was their connection? Sure they shared the same first name, but that was just a coincidence…wasn't it?
Entering the room had given her more question than she'd first started with. She approached a shelf and pulled out a binder. It had "Danny Fenton's, don't touch!" and "Warning: Angry son and/or brother if this is opened by anyone but Danny Fenton!" written on the front, with an angry face scrawled on the front. Well, she'd already read Phantom's private letter – may as well invade Danny's privacy, too.
She opened the binder and her eyes widened. Inside were pictures and newspaper clippings, all of them involving Phantom in some way. There was a picture with Phantom, Sam and Tucker all hanging out, taken in selfie fashion by Phantom from the looks of it. Then there was a picture of Danny and Phantom, taken from the side by someone else, standing side-by-side and watching something sink into the water. Danny was wearing a ridiculous outfit she'd never seen him wear before, and Phantom had some kind of cape around his shoulders. (Well, she knew he liked capes now, but she'd never seen him use one in the past.)
Her vision blurred a bit and she wiped at her eyes with her sleeve before continuing on. There were little journal entries written on scratch paper, but not what you'd expect. They seemed to be less about his personal life, and more making note of something that went wrong in a ghost battle and comments on how to prevent it next time. It seemed that Danny was as heavily involved in Phantom's, er, "career" as Phantom himself was.
More pictures, many of them with Sam, Tucker, and Phantom, or Sam, Tucker, and Danny. But she only ever saw Danny and Phantom in one picture that one time, and couldn't help but think about Phantom's enigmatic letter again.
The binder reached its end with a picture taken from a distance of Phantom in the suit battling Pariah Dark. Danny and his two friends had been so heavily involved in Phantom's battles, and she never knew. She didn't know anything. The "unpopular trio" had been using first-aid kits to treat wounds and lying about where they had been – all to help Phantom. But, why? He was a ghost, and they were human! Why would they want so badly to help him?
She closed the scrapbook and put it back, stepping back from the shelf and running her hands through her hair as she tried to make sense of it all. Phantom's letter…that binder…the first-aid kit…Danny's connection to Phantom…it didn't make sense, none of it, and the only two people who could make sense of it were dead or, well, she was trying to kill him for the murder of thousands.
Valerie left the bedroom and closed the door, going to the bathroom to wash dust off her hands. She had thought she'd heard Danny in the cemetery…was that just a trick of the mind? Or was Danny Fenton actually a ghost, haunting his own grave instead of going to the Ghost Zone like all the others?
.
"This is stupid." She mumbled as she flew over the silent city of Amity Park. "As if he would actually be there. Wouldn't Phantom know if he was? I'm going out into the cold for nothing." She spotted the cemetery and flew over, hopping off the jet-ski and checking her bracelet for any sign of Phantom. It wasn't reading him, not even a little, and she nodded firmly before stepping into the cemetery proper, activating a flashlight on her bracelet to navigate.
Her footsteps seemed too loud in the dark silence, and if it wasn't so wet she would be tempted to remove her boots so she wouldn't disturb the silence. She walked on the path until she saw the letter resting against the grave and then walked into the grass, turning off the light on her bracelet.
"Don't know why I came back here." She mumbled, kneeling in front of the grave again. "I don't even visit my mother's grave this often, and here I am visiting yours for the second time in one day."
The moon came out from behind the clouds, lighting up the letters and numbers on the grave.
Danny Fenton
1991-2005
May he finally have peace
The inscription had been paid for by Vlad Masters, and she'd always thought that it was talking about how he was bullied all the time. But, now that she knew what she did, she couldn't help but imagine Danny laughing with his friends and Phantom after a tough ghost fight, maybe high-fives were exchanged before the trio went to the Nasty Burger and Phantom went…where did he go, anyway? Back to the Ghost Zone? What did she even know about Phantom? Nothing.
She'd first met Phantom when he'd been with a ghost dog that was wrecking her life again and again. That was the day she swore to get even with him, and why she became the Red Huntress – paid for by Vlad Masters, interestingly enough. How much of Phantom did he know, and did he know about Danny being involved with him?
"I doubt Mr. Masters would tell me if he did know anything." She said to herself, sighing. "He's been pretty tight-lipped since your death."
"He's been tight-lipped."
There it was again, that soft, faint voice. She looked around, but saw nothing. She listened for it to say something again, but nothing. But it had just echoed what she'd said, hadn't it? Maybe it was just her mind playing tricks. She decided to try saying something else.
"He probably knows the most about Phantom, but isn't saying anything for some reason." She reasoned to herself.
"For some reason."
There it was again. She frowned and got up, using on the flashlight on her bracelet again. She turned this way and that, scanning the area for anyone that could be in the cemetery with her. "Okay, if you're some brat that's messing with me, I'm not going to be happy." She said firmly. "Come out!"
No answer, not even a shifting of grass. She looked behind the grave, but found nothing. Sighing, she turned off the light again and knelt in front of the grave. "This letter is just going to get soaked if I leave it here…" She mumbled, picking it up. "I doubt he'll care if it was moved."
"He'll care."
She looked around again, her eyes narrowing, and then she put the letter into her suit pocket to take home. "Phantom? Is that you?" She asked, checking the scanner again. No sign of him, but he HAD been known to come out of nowhere…
She got up and pulled out her gun, turning on the night-vision on her helmet as she turned around. "If that's you, then come out and talk to me like a sane person!" She said firmly. "Stop it with these copy-cat games!"
"You'd have to be sane to talk like a sane person."
She stopped and looked back at the grave. That wasn't just copying; it was a full, non-prompted sentence in response to her. Okay, so it was a clever quip about Phantom's sanity, but still…
Was this Danny? Or just some other ghost messing with her? She holstered her gun and turned to the headstone silently, daring it to talk again without her saying anything. It didn't, remaining silent as the stone it was carved from.
"…If you're a ghost, then come out. I won't shoot you." She coaxed, stepping closer to it. "You're not doing anything dangerous, just…mildly annoying. So why don't you come out of hiding and we'll talk?"
No sign of anything coming out, not even an answer in words. She sighed and turned away. "Alright, fine. But don't cause any trouble. Stay in the cemetery or go to the Ghost Zone." She headed back to the path. "Whether he'll care or not, I'm taking the letter. It's the only sign of remorse from him that I've seen in eight years."
She expected a reply, but when she listened closely she didn't hear anything. She sighed and headed back to the gates, preparing to leave. She powered up her jet-ski and hopped on, taking one last look at the grave. Was it a trick of the moonlight, or did she see it glowing a little? When she flew over to investigate, it wasn't glowing and saw no sign of a ghost near it.
"Alright, fine. If you're going to be stubborn, I'll just have to keep visiting until you show up." She told it, flying off. She glanced back at it, hoping to see it glowing again, but saw nothing.
Maybe it was just wishful thinking. Maybe she had been talking to herself the whole time, and there was never any voice at all. Maybe she just WANTED Danny to be there, so she'd get some concrete answers.
Guh, she hated not knowing if she was losing her mind or not!
What!? This was supposed to be when we found out for sure! Now we've got more questions?! Guh, Danny! Are you a ghost or just a figment of Valerie's imagination?! You're turning a one-shot into a full-length fic, you brat! We're not supposed to be dealing with your brattiness for another two years! ~ Zone
