Finding his friends was simple. He knew all of their classes, as they shared most of them. The ones they didn't share, he'd had to learn in case of an emergency. On top of that, he knew their routine. Where they would usually be at any given time. He also knew Jazz's schedule. Somehow he'd managed to memorize hers instead of his own for the beginning of almost every school year. He was expecting to find Tucker and Sam at their lockers, and Jazz in her classroom, as she tended to be early for every single class unless there was something going on.
He wasn't expecting to find her with his friends, crying.
Danny froze for only a second before darting over to them, panic surging through his core. He kept up his invisibility, as there were a few last stragglers along with his friends in the hall, though it was a constant drain of energy. He wouldn't be able to keep it up much longer.
"Jazz?" He whispered, concern thick in his voice. He was right next to her, able to see her shoulders shaking. All three of them jumped, and Jazz's eyes went wide. Her head whipped around to face him, but her eyes were flicking around wildly. Invisibility. Right.
"D-Danny?" She asked, forcing her voice into a whisper. She looked like she wanted to yell his name, but she apparently realized that it would draw attention. "Is that you?"
He nodded, before realizing she couldn't see him.
"Y-yeah, it's me. Jazz, are you okay? You're crying."
She laughed, hiccuping. Sam sighed, glaring in his general direction.
"Well, someone disappeared and didn't come back." Her voice was flat. "He gets into a lot of dangerous situations without telling anyone, and risks his life daily."
"We were all worried, dude." Tucker continued. "None of us had any idea where you were."
He drooped, slowly sinking to the ground until his feet were planted on the floor. His core felt heavy, weighing him down. He'd worried them all so much. He had made Jazz cry. He didn't even think about how they were feeling this whole time…
"Oh." He whispered. "I… I'm sorry."
Sam's face fell, going from stubborn anger to guilt in a second. Tucker mirrored her, kicking at the ground softly. Jazz… she just started crying again.
"Don't." She said softly. Gently. She wasn't mad. Deep down, he felt she should be. "It's not your fault. I'm sure it was important." She sniffed and wiped her eyes. "The important thing is that you're okay."
He didn't deserve them. They were too good for him.
The hall was empty now. First period was probably starting. And it was just getting to be too much to keep drawing on his core. After a second's hesitation, he let himself turn visible.
Immediately their faces turned to shock, which then bled into horror.
"Danny!" Jazz gasped, reaching out to him but freezing, like she wasn't sure she could touch him without him breaking. "Are you okay? W-what happened?"
Tucker looked like he was going to be sick, leaning against the wall of lockers. Sam was frozen.
He shrugged.
"I… fought a new ghost. She was… strong." He finally let himself glance down to his side. All green… "I… could we go home? There's some… stuff. I need to tell you, and I'm not… I don't t-think I'm doing okay?"
"Danny, if you… have you seen yourself?" Tucker asked, eyes trailing from his side, up to his face, and down to his legs. Danny frowned.
"No, but I… look, can we talk at home? Can we just go, please?" He reached to his core, preparing to switch from ghost back to human. There wasn't really a point to being Phantom at the moment. Maybe he could save some of his energy and… it wasn't working.
He could hear his friends talking. They were saying something, but they sounded far away. He tugged at his core again, but the rings didn't appear. He didn't turn human. His core didn't even respond to his efforts the way it usually did. It didn't feel like there was something blocking the transformation, but like… he'd forgotten how? No, that wasn't quite it… It was like his core had lost the ability.
His blood ran cold.
Suddenly dizzy, he backed into the lockers lining the wall of the hall they were in. There was a sudden hand on his shoulder, and he looked up, Jazz's worried expression snapping him to reality again.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
"Obviously not." Sam interjected. "Are you even seeing him? We need to get him out of here."
He agreed. Sam always had the best ideas. Well, except for that one time… and the time when… and- okay, maybe not always, but right here, right now, she was right. And he was wrong. There was something wrong with him. Very, very wrong.
"Guys…?" He asked, barely whispering. They all looked at him, expectant. Waiting. He swallowed thickly. "I can't… I can't turn back."
"Turn back?" Tucker repeated. "Like, into a human?"
Danny winced, but nodded. His head was spinning. They all shared concerned glances.
"If you can't, then… Is it a good idea to go home?" Jazz asked. He hissed through clenched teeth. That was true. Going home so hurt was already a bad plan, going home a hurt ghost was definitely not a good plan. He tugged at his core again, this time getting a response in the form of pain. He gasped, slipping down the locker wall to the floor, eyes squeezing shut.
"Danny!"
He couldn't tell who was talking anymore. Everything was fading in and out, underwater static. There were hands on his shoulders, pulling him up. Where were they going…? His eyes cracked open, tiled floor and locker lined walls rushing past. He was being carried. He thought he was, at least… It was probably Jazz. Good. It would be okay. It was okay.
They would take care of him.
His eyes slid shut.
Everything was blurry. His thoughts slid and scattered in his head, and the light coming through his eyelids dimed and brightened with no warning, no pattern. His body ached, and he knew if he woke up fully it would hurt far more. …He didn't want to wake up.
There were voices above him, mere whispers. They were familiar, and he felt better with them talking. He didn't understand the words, or even tell if there were any words amidst the soothing cadence of sound, but he didn't mind. He just let himself sink back into the static comfort of unconsciousness…
But then, one of the voices left. He could hear the thumps of feet against the floor, and one of the three voices didn't come back, even as the other two continued dancing in the air above him. Where did it go? Was it coming back? Why was it leaving him? What did he do wrong? The other voices were great, but there was an empty space now, a nagging feeling disturbing him. He needed them all. They were all supposed to be with him.
He whimpered, cracking his eyes open. He needed to find out where the voice went. Everything was just blurring together though, colors mixing into an unappealing green. The two remaining voices disappeared. His eyes snapped open. Why? What had he done to make them leave?
"C-come-" He coughed, body flaring in pain. A hand rested on his shoulder, and he whimpered, pulling away. It disappeared, and he immediately missed the warmth and contact.
"Danny, it's okay." One of the voices murmured. It was female. More awake now, he recognized it. Jazz. Jazz was with him. "Deep breaths, it's okay. We're with you. Relax, little brother. Rest."
He blinked, everything finally snapping into focus. Jazz was leaning over him, eyes red and puffy. Her face was pinched with concern, and her smile, though genuine, was shaky. Tucker sat beside him, worry clear on his face as well, his PDA was in one hand. And…
"S-Sam?" He whimpered. She'd left him? She'd been the one to go? Why? What had he done? She was supposed to be here, with him and the others. What did he do to make her leave?
"Shh, Danny, it's okay. She'll be back, okay?" Jazz whispered, taking one of his hands in hers. "She just went to get some things, okay? She'll come back."
He crumpled in relief. It was okay then. Everything was fine. Except…
"Valerie." He tried to sit up, but the pain and Jazz pushing him back down won, and he fell back onto the bed. His free hand clenched into a fist. "You need to warn Valerie."
Tucker frowned.
"Why? What's wrong with Valerie?"
Danny's core flared, and his eyes burned.
"There's nothing wrong with her!" He hissed. "There's nothing-" He cut himself off, closing his eyes. Tucker hadn't meant it like that. It was fine. Calm down, calm down, calm down… He took a deep breath, opening his eyes. Jazz and Tucker were both watching him warily, though obviously still concerned.
"It's… I'm sorry." He whispered.
"It's okay Danny, you've been through a lot." Jazz said softly. "Why do we need to warn her?"
He hesitated, gathering his thoughts.
"Alkadih, the ghost I, uh, left to go fight. She… she was after Valerie." His mouth was dry. He was leaving out some big details here… "She was working for someone. They sent Alkidih to kill Valerie, and I s-stopped her, but her employers are still out there, and they'll probably send more people after her, and m-me now, since I-I… I…"
"You stopped them, and kicked their plans into next week." Tucker supplied. Knowing their luck, the consequences for this probably wouldn't wait till next week, but… He nodded slowly. He had stopped them, just… perhaps a bit too well.
Jazz narrowed her eyes.
"Danny," she began, "you have a right to have secrets but… If there's something you need to say, you can say it."
Tears stung his eyes.
"I… you need to know, but I d-don't…" want you to hate me. He'd killed someone, even if it had been a ghost. How could they look past that?
"It's okay, take your time." She said, and he really, really didn't deserve them as friends. He was about to open his mouth, about to say something, though he didn't know what, but the door opened at that moment. He looked up, finally taking in what he recognized as Tucker's room. Sam, thank goodness she was back, carefully closed the door with her foot, two bags filling her hands, and turned to come in. She froze as she saw Danny, awake and aware. A flurry of emotions flashed across her face, finally settling into a cold, unreadable mask.
"Daniel James Fenton, you'd better-"
"Phantom." He interrupted, and she paused, confused.
"What?"
"Daniel James… Phantom." He repeated. "My name."
The group exchanged glances.
"Danny, what's your real name?" Tucker asked slowly. Danny frowned.
"That is my name."
"Daniel James…" Jazz trailed off. He filled in Phantom again. Really, he didn't understand why they were all so confused. That was his name. It had always been. Jazz's eyebrows scrunched together. "What's my last name?"
"Fenton."
"And we're siblings, right?"
He hissed. What were they doing? What was the point of these questions? They had more important things to worry about. They were stupid questions anyway.
"Yeah, of course we are." He replied. "But, Jazz, what's the point of this? I-"
"Why are our last names different then, Danny?" She asked. He paused. "If mine is Fenton, but your real, actual last name you were born with is Phantom, why are they different?"
Wait, that… that didn't make any sense. He was Phantom, he knew that was true. He'd always been Phantom, that was his name. Daniel James Phantom. But… Jazz's name was Fenton. They… shouldn't be different. He knew their last names were supposed to be the same, but… they weren't.
He bit his lip, trying to think, but his head was spinning. He didn't understand. He was sure they were the same, but… What was wrong? Something wasn't right, but he couldn't quite tell what it was. He looked up, about to speak, to ask what was wrong with him, but when he saw Sam he stopped. She was pale, even paler than usual, and she was frozen, eyes wide with shock. She dropped her bags, a few rolls of bandages, medical ointments, and water bottles rolling across the floor.
"S-Sam…?" He asked, hesitant. She snapped out of her shock, and stumbled over to the bed.
"Danny," she sounded urgent- panicked even, "what exactly happened to you last night?
She sounded so urgent, so scared. There was something in her eyes, a deep, dark pit that seemed to consume her. There was a knowledge, an idea, forming in those eyes. And it wasn't a good one.
He swallowed, took a breath, and began recounting what had happened. He started slow, hesitant, but as he went on, a dam broke and he couldn't stop the flow of words that flowed from his lips. The details he wanted to skip over poured from his mouth in a wave, a torrent of information. He tried to slow down and skip over some things, but the waterfall of words couldn't be swayed now that they had began to spill over. It was like trying to build a dam in a raging river, with a few leaves as your only tool.
Every little detail, from how tired he was to the stitches sewn across Alkidih's face. From the reasons for their deal to the honest guilt and regret that he saw in the ghost he'd killed. He spoke of the fight they'd had, and the visions he'd seen in her eyes.
He couldn't stop himself from speaking of the anger he'd felt, the fierce desire to protect himself, Valerie, and Amity itself. His hands began trembling as he explained what he'd done, how he'd wrapped his hand around her core and shattered it, how she was dead and never coming back.
He couldn't look at their faces as he told them of his final moment before losing consciousness, alone, losing both blood and strength. He told them about when he woke up, confused, and so, so, so devoid of energy. About how he'd eaten the left over ectoplasm and taken energy from it- to which both Sam and Tucker seemed ready to vomit-, and how he'd flown back to Amity.
He stopped then, as Jazz pressed a finger to his lips. She pulled him into a hug, rubbing his back, carefully avoiding any injuries. He trembled, and soon that bled into shaking and shivering. Tucker and Sam approached and surrounded him, and just stayed. They were still with him, after all that. He smiled shakily. How did he get such amazing people as his friends?
Danny sniffled, and in that moment he realized his face was wet with tears.
He couldn't remember when he'd started crying.
