A/N
Thankyou all readers and reviewers and favers and whatnot.
I'm not to be blamed for this chapter – the characters took over, I swear.
I don't own DP or TT, if I did there would be actual crossovers. It'd be awesome. :D
:)
In his mind, the town was burning.
Every building was aflame, every citizen screaming the same terror as they searched for lost loved ones and tried to escape the devastation.
In his mind, he was the cause of it all. Danny Phantom hovered high in the blazing red sky, his head thrown back and his eyes half-crazed. He laughed, a strangely high-pitched cackling that carried above the screams of the humans running around like ants on the ground.
He snapped his eyes to the town and his hands lit up with crimson ecto-energy. He hurled energy ball after energy ball towards the people, watching them scatter in fear and hearing their shouts of panic echo through the night.
Then, suddenly, he heard his father's voice.
"Please, Danny, no..."
Jack was there before him, hovering in mid-air. His skin was burned and blackened, his eyes sunken in their sockets. His jumpsuit was ripped and every breath seemed to be a wheezing struggle.
"Dad?" Danny murmured, "Dad. Dad, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have come home that night, I should've led Skulker somewhere else." His voice grew softer and cracked with unshed tears. "I was just so tired. So weak."
Jack's ghost tried to smirk, but it looked more like a grimace with his cracked lips and hollow teeth. "You should've been stronger." He mocked, right before he plunged his hand straight through Danny's chest, ripping out his unbeating heart.
Danny woke up screaming.
Two pairs of hands held him down, one set big and clunky, the other thin and lean. Danny screamed again, eyes wide but not seeing. He struggled against the hands holding him down, trying to remember what had happened. Had the Guys in White finally captured him, or was it the human police?
He tried to focus himself, tried to find the centre he needed in order to tap into his powers. If he could just –
"Stop struggling, man! We're not trying to hurt you!"
Danny shook his head, trying to clear it. Lies, more lies. He felt a familiar weightless feeling come over him and he sank through the bed he was lying on, rolling out of it and resuming his form on the ground. He panted, breathless from the effort, and finally managed to take in his surroundings.
He was in a room that seemed to be mostly stainless steel, full of machines and monitors that looked far too science-lab-like for his taste. Danny scrambled to his feet and turned around to face his captors, teeth bared in some kind of feral half-snarl.
Should've been stronger.
Two people stood opposite him, careful not to move any closer. Danny's panicked mind calmed a fraction as confusion took over. One of them was a hulking giant, half-made of what seemed to be... machine parts. The other boy was smaller, dressed in a spandex suit and donning a cape and mask. The half-robot held up his hands, while the whites of the smaller boy's mask narrowed a little. Danny's shoulders rose and fell as he sucked in deep breath after deep breath, waiting for one of them to make a move.
"Okay, just calm down." The smaller boy, who Danny sensed to be the leader out of the two, said quietly. "We're not going to hurt you."
Danny remained silent, green eyes unblinking.
"Why don't you just sit down, and we'll talk, okay?" Spandex-boy's voice was slow, calm, in control. Danny's hand twitched at his side. He felt trapped, and a quick glance around the room showed no obvious exits. The only way out was for him to phase through the wall or the ceiling, but he had no idea what kind of technology they could have to keep him here.
If he had any kind of chance, it would be to knock both these clowns out and then make his escape through the door on the far side of the room.
Spandex-boy waited. Then, he tried again. "Or if you'd prefer to remain standing, that's fine too. What's your name?"
Danny didn't open his mouth.
The Cyborg guy frowned. "Robin, he's seriously freaked out. Maybe we should..."
"No." Robin, Danny guessed, replied. "We need to know why those men were after you."
Danny shook his head. "You don't need to know anything." The words sounded strangely bitter in his mouth.
Robin frowned. "Actually, we do. We need to know if they're going to attack again. Innocent people could get hurt."
Danny scoffed darkly. "They're about the protection of humanity from..." The words died in his throat.
"From?" the Cyborg prompted. Danny shook his head and backed up against the wall, clamping his mouth shut. He'd said too much. He had to get away, had to keep running, couldn't stay here for long. That's what he'd promised himself – a rest for one night in the park, then he would keep going.
He hadn't counted on the GIW showing up and chasing him all through the town.
"What's your name?" Robin tried again.
"Don't have one." Danny was lying through his teeth, and Robin knew it. He took a step closer, and Danny tensed.
The Cyborg laid a hand on Robin's shoulder. "Man, leave it." He smiled at Danny. "How 'bout we tell you a little about us first, then you can tell us whatever you want, alright?"
Robin didn't look happy, but he watched for Danny's reaction.
Danny paused. It was always better to know your enemies, after all. Besides, when it came to be his turn to show and tell, he could always lie. He'd been doing it for years. He gulped, and nodded.
"Okay." He breathed. "Who are you, and what am I doing here?"
"I'm Cyborg," the half-robot guy replied, "this is Robin. We're the Teen Titans – well, part of them anyway. Star, BB and Raven are upstairs, waiting for you to wake up actually."
Danny wanted to slam his head against the wall. Of course! He must've gone as far as Jump City, then. Impressive for only a week of flying. But wait, if these were the Titans, why didn't they recognise him?
He'd always tried to stay out of the public eye, avoiding cameras wherever he could and turning invisible before people could get a snap. Still, pictures of the infamous ghost boy had popped up in tabloids over the years, but maybe not enough to make him incredibly famous outside of Amity Park. The rest of the world wasn't as quick to believe in the existence of ghosts, after all.
"The Teen Titans," Danny mumbled, "Yeah, I've heard of you."
"You're in Titans Tower – our base of operations and our home." Robin said, taking over. "Starfire and Beast Boy fought two men in white yesterday afternoon – men who were trying to get to you, it seemed."
"You were pretty banged up, but you seemed to be okay by the time they got you back here." Cyborg frowned, "Except for the fact I couldn't get a reading on you, at all. That was weird."
"What?" Danny asked, his heart sinking.
"No heartbeat, no pulse, but a normal breathing pattern. Figured I'd ask you about it when you were feeling up to it." He shrugged, "No pressure."
"No pressure." Danny mumbled, closing his eyes, "Right. So you brought me here to fix my nonexistent injuries and then play twenty questions?"
"Starfire and Beast Boy could've saved your life." Robin said warningly, eyes narrowing. Danny couldn't help it – he laughed out loud. "What?"
"You can't save what doesn't exist." Danny shrugged, "You want answers? How about I throw a wrench into the works. Those guys chasing me? They're part of an organisation of over-funded paranormal investigators, and crappy ones at that."
"Paranormal investigators?" Cyborg echoed, puzzled.
"Investigators, hunters, torturers. Whatever." Danny muttered. Words were spilling out of his mouth now and he couldn't seem to stop them. "Point is, they're not out to hurt humans, so you have nothing to worry about. The innocent remains protected and all that, you're not neglecting your civil duty by not taking them out."
"What about you? Why were they chasing you?" Robin asked.
Danny laughed again, the sound hysterical. His hands were shaking, drumming against his thigh. He was exhausted and somehow giddily happy, like he'd been shocked by a thousand volts of electricity. Vaguely, he registered he must be having some kind of panic attack, maybe something to do with post-traumatic stress.
"Don't you get it?" He strode towards the two stunned teenagers, "No heartbeat? No pulse?" He pressed his palm against Robin's bare cheek. The boy wonder pulled away, hand reaching for his bo staff. "Come on, it's so easy! I've got ice cold skin and I can even do this –" He disappeared from view and then reappeared, waving his hand through Cyborg's giant metal body.
Neither boy said anything, and Danny laughed even harder. "I'm dead, you losers. That's why those idiots were after me. They want to take me in and pull me apart molecule by molecule! That's their standard threat. That's everyone's standard threat. After all, I can't feel it. I'm just a ghost!" Danny was shouting now, tears brimming in his eyes.
"Stay out of this, ghost boy. Both of you, out of my lab before I fry you!" Danny sobbed, "Should've been stronger."
"Man, calm down! It's okay!" Cyborg cried.
"Ghosts are just matter, sweetie, they can't feel pain." The halfa fell to his knees, shoulders shaking. "I can feel it. Mom said ghosts don't feel pain, but I feel it. It hurts so much and it won't go away even though I left. I'd take being torn apart by them over this, I'd let them do a thousand tests. Just not this."
A pair of strong arms picked him up and helped him back into the bed, and this time he didn't resist. "Just not this. Not this."
Danny Phantom curled up, unable to feel anything but overpowering guilt and hate for himself. Hate for these people, who had brought all of this tumbling out of his heart. Hate for his parents for not seeing the signs – how tired he was all the time, the bruises, the failed tests and the classes he skipped.
"What's your name?" Robin's voice was close to his ear, "We're going to do everything we can to help you, but we can't do anything unless you give us a name."
Danny ripped at his hair. "Danny." He whispered, and then he felt no more.
