Stalemate
In 10 years, they've gone from being the constantly battling pawns to becoming the most powerful pieces on the board. But all that's done is lock them in stalemate.

Word Count: 456 words
Pairings:
Valerie centered, but I guess a smidgeon of Dark Gray if you looked?
Genre: Um, general reflective?
Rating: K+, but I think it should be T because of the mention of Dark Danny


There are days when she wakes up and wonders if these past ten years have been one vivid nightmare. And then she recalls all the pain and hurt and pure agony she's endured and realizes: nightmares shouldn't hurt that much. Yet it just seems so surreal to her at times how ghost hunting is all her life's amounted to. Well, hunting isn't even the right word anymore. Now it's just one ghost she has to fight in order to protect what's left of Amity Park. The same ghost who all but led her to this career a decade ago: Phantom.

Valerie wonders sometimes how exactly they reached this point. After all, once upon a time, Phantom was the one she wanted and needed revenge on. Now, she's the only one standing between him and decimation of Amity.

…When did that happen?

At a point in her early teens and early days as a ghost hunter, Valerie had seen Phantom as the catalyst that had ruined what she had thought was the perfect life back then. Only when she had the time to reflect did the Huntress see that the Phantom before the Accident was infinitely better than the Phantom after the Accident. He used to be good- always watching out not just for her, but for all of Amity Park, a fact that they had so overlooked back then.

And then the explosion at the Nasty Burger occurred, Phantom had disappeared and when he returned, he wasn't the same anymore. He was the villain, the monster.

When she's in a pessimistic mood, Valerie thinks that this is the role she's meant to play for the rest of her life: the knight fighting the dragon. She hates that she can't do anything about this job- part of her knows that this is the right thing to do: fighting Phantom to keep everyone else safe. Another part of her resents Phantom all over again for keep her so caged in and restricted.

He told her once that their relationship (she cringed at that word) was similar to a chess game. She'd make a move and so would he and so on and so forth. Valerie didn't like to admit it, but he was right, in some sort of sick, twisted way (was this all really just a game?)- her whole life has been reduced to one continuous mental and physical black and white strategy game.

The alarm blares and her dad sends her the coordinates of the tower that Phantom is attacking. It takes but a moment for the skilled Huntress to press a button and call her hoverboard. And then she speeds off- it's her move now.

But she knows that they'll forever be at a stalemate.


Note: I seriously love 'The Ultimate Enemy'. Dark Danny's voice makes me die with how gorgeous he sounds. But I really love his and Valerie's relationship in the future. Even if I am a DxS shipper XD
Review?
.chary